


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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e ACA_DeN|Y semes of 

Jjt ENGLISH CLASSICS 




Shakespeare 
Hamlet 



EDITED BY 

S. THLRBi-R 



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ALLYN AND BACO 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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HAMLET 



PRINCE OF DENMARK 



EDITED BY 



SAMUEL THURBER 



ALL 




TWO COPIES RECEIVED 






Copyright, 1897, fy 
SAMUEL THURBER. 



/?- 3?i'3^ 



Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Norwood, Mass. 
Presswork by H. M. Plimpton & Co., Printers and Binders, Norwood, Mass. 



PREFACE. 



In preparing notes to explain the text of Hamlet I 
have followed my usual practice of seeking to help the 
teacher by helping the pupil. Working absolutely with- 
out help, the young reader makes his way through our 
English classics too slowly and laboriously, toiling in 
vain over details, and so failing to get large impressions. 
Above all things, the school must keep the study of 
English literature interesting, or else the school practi- 
cally belies the very end and aim of the subject it pro- 
fesses to teach. All the poets and the prose writers have 
striven to interest their contemporaries and their poster- 
ity. The classics are those who succeeded and still suc- 
ceed in this endeavor ; the great classics are those who 
have succeeded in a pre-eminent degree. 

Hence, whatever else, in a school course, a strenuous 
discipline may, for training's sake, insist on keeping 
hard and dry, the English literature must ever be tem- 
pered with the warmth of liking and curiosity. The 
primal relation of literature to the mind is an appeal for 
attention, an effort to stimulate, to please. We cannot 
lose sight of this truth and treat poetry as if it Avere 
science, which we can absolutely withdraw from and 
view as an objective thing. 

The human questions, of character and motive, of con- 
science and remorse, that arise in every Shakespearian 

ill 



iv PREFACE. 

play, and especially in Hamlet, must, to inexperienced 
readers, be made accessible in spite of the obscurities of 
the language, and must be shown to have literary and 
historical relations of far-reaching importance. For it is 
to be said that the youag reader, while he is by certain dif- 
ficulties checked and perplexed, slips unconsciously over 
others, careful study of which might bring to him a rich 
reward. What we are wont to call the recitation, — a 
function that too often is little else than a process of 
questioning about matters committed to memory, the 
teacher had better fill with conversation, eliciting from 
as many individuals as possible avowals of belief or 
doubt. The tests of success in the teaching of classic 
literature are these : Does the great writer exert over 
the youth we have instructed something of the power 
legitimately due to his greatness? Do we bring it to 
pass that to the adolescent mind the modern homage 
paid to the ancient poet seems a natural and intelligible 
phenomenon ? Do we at least succeed in implanting in 
our pupils a curiosity about Shakespeare which in some 
individuals may, with maturer years, expand into a 
Shakespeare-reading habit ? 

Whoever at the present day, in elucidation of Hamlet, 
offers edification by the margent, has to begin with 
acknowledgement of his indebtedness to Purness' Vario- 
rum. The Hamlet literature, long too vast for any but 
a specialist, has found its competent specialist and mas- 
ter in Furness, whose edition of the play makes it, for 
the average student, absolutely needless to go further in 
research. I wish the Furness Hamlet were larger than 
it is, could the additional pages be occupied by fur- 



PREFACE. V 

ther original comment — such as we have learned to 
search for in the crowded notes — from Mr. Furness' 
own pen. 

The text here printed is that of the Cambridge, with 
occasional divergence, — when authority seemed suffi- 
cient, — for the sake of giving a more natural reading, 
and with such slight omissions of lines as the educational 
purpose of the edition suggested. The line-numbering 
is that of the Globe Shakespeare, thus facilitating refer- 
ence to Bartlett's Concordance and to Schmidt's Lexicon. 



HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. 



DEAMATIS PEKSONvE. 



Claudius, king of Denmark. 
Hamlet, son to the late, and nephew to 

the present king-. 
P0LONIU8, lord chamberlain. 
Horatio, friend to Hamlet. 
Laertes, son to Polonius. 
voltimand, 
Cornelius, 
eosenouantz, 
guildenstern, 

OSKIC, 

A Gentleman, 
A Priest. 
Makoellus, 
Bernardo, 



-courtiers. 



officers. 



Franc rsoo, a soldier. 

Eeynaldo, servant to Polonius. 

Players. 

Two Clowns, Grave-diggers. 

FoRTiNBRAS, priuce of Norway. 

A Captain. 

English Ambassadors. 

Gertrude, queen of Denmark, and 

mother to Hamlet. 

Ophelia, daughter to Polonius. 

Lords, Ladies, Oflicers, Soldiers, Sailors, 

Messengers, and other Attendants. 

Ghost of Hamlet's Father. 

Scene : Denmark. 



ACT I. 

Scene I. Elsinoo'e. A platform before the castle. 
Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo. 

Ber. Who 's there ? 

Fran. Nay, answer me : stand, and unfold yourself. 
Ber. Long live the king ! 
Fran. Bernardo ? 
Ber. He. 

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. 
Ber. 'T is now struck twelve ; get thee to bed, Fran- 
cisco. 

B 1 



2 HAMLET. 

Fran. For this relief much thanks : 't is bitter cold, 
And I am sick at heart. 

Be7\ Have you had quiet guard ? 

Fran. Not a mouse stirring. 10 

Ber. Well, good night. 
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, 
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. 

Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho ! Who 's 
there ? 

Enter Horatio and Makcellus. 

Hor. Friends to this ground. 15 

Mar. And liegemen to the Dane, 

Fran. Give you good night. 

Mar. 0, farewell, honest soldier : 

Who hath relieved you ? 

Fran. Bernardo has my place. 

Give you good night. \^Exit. 

Mar. Holla ! Bernardo ! 

Ber. Say, 

What, is Horatio there ? 

Hor. A piece of him. 

Ber. Welcome, Horatio : welcome, good Marcellus. 20 

Mar. What, has this thing appeared again to-night ? 

Ber. I have seen nothing. 

Mar. Horatio says 't is but our fantasy, 
And will not let belief take hold of him 
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us : 25 

Therefore I have entreated him along 
With us to watch the minutes of this night; 
That if again this apparition come, 
He may approve our eyes and speak to it. 



ACT I. SCENE I. 3 

Hor. Tush, tush, 't will not appear. 

Be7\ Sit down awhile ; so 

And let us once again assail your ears. 
That are so fortified against our story 
What we have two nights seen. 

Hor. Well, sit we down. 

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. 

Ber. Last night of all, 35 

When yond same star that 's westward from the pole 
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven 
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, 
The bell then beating one, — 

Enter Ghost. 

Mar. Peace, break thee ofE ; look, where it comes 
again ! 40 

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that 's dead. 

Mar. Thou art a scholar ; speak to it, Horatio. 

Ber. Looks it not like the king ? mark it, Horatio. 

Hor. Most like : it harrows me with fear and wonder. 
. Be7'. It would be spoke to. 

Ma7'. Question it, Horatio. 45 

Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, 
Together with that fair and warlike form 
In which the majesty of buried Denmark 
Did sometimes march ? by heaven I charge thee, speak ! 

Mar. It is offended. 

Ber. See, it stalks away ! 50 

Hor. Stay ! speak, speak ! I charge thee, speak ! 

[Exit GJiost. 

Mar. 'T is gone, and will not answer. 

Ber. How now, Horatio ! you tremble and look pale : 



4 HAMLET. 

Is not this soBiething more than fantasy ? 

What think you on 't ? 65 

Sor. Before my God, I might not this believe 
Without the sensible and true avouch 
Of mine own eyes. 

Mar. Is it not like the king ? 

Hor. As thou art to thyself : 
Such was the very armor he had on 60 

When he the ambitious Norway combated ; 
So frowned he once, when, in an angry parle. 
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice : 
'Tis strange. 

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour. 
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. (56 

Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not ; 
But in the gross and scope of my opinion. 
This bodes some strange eruption to our state. 

Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows. 
Why this same strict and most observant watch 71 

So nightly toils the subject of the land, 
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, 
And foreign mart for implements of war ; 
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 75 
Does not divide the Sunday from the week ; 
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste 
i)oth make the night joint-laborer with the day : 
Who is 't that can inform me ? 

Hor. That can I ; 

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80 

Whose image even but now appeared to us. 
Was, as you know, by Tortinbras of Norway, 
Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, 



ACT I. SCENE I. 5 

Dared to the combat ; in \yhich our valiant Hamlet — 

For so this side of our known world esteemed him — 85 

Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a sealed compact, 

Well ratified by law and heraldry, 

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands 

Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror ; 

Against the which, a moiety competent 90 

Was gaged by our king ; which had returned 

To the inheritance of Fortinbras, 

Had he been vanquisher ; as, by the same covenant, 

And carriage of the article designed. 

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, 95 

Of unimproved mettle hot and full, 

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there 

Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes. 

For food and diet, to some enterprise 

That hath a stomach in 't ; which is no other — lOO 

As it doth well appear unto our state — 

But to recover of us, by strong hand 

And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands 

So by his father lost : and this, I take it. 

Is the main motive of our preparations, 105 

The source of this our watch and the chief head 

Of this post-haste and romage in the land. 

Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so : 
Well may it sort that this portentous figure 
Comes armed through our watch ; so like the king lio 
That was and is the* question of these wars. 

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. 
In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, 
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead 115 



6 HAMLET. 

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets : 

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, 

Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star 

Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands 

Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse : 120 

And even the like precurse of fierce events, 

As harbingers preceding still the fates 

And prologue to the omen coming on, 

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated 

Unto our climatures and countrymen. — 125 

But soft, behold ! lo, where it comes again ! 

Re-enter Ghost. 

I '11 cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion ! 

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, 

Speak to me : 

If there be any good thing to be done, 130 

That may to thee do ease and grace to me. 

Speak to me : \_Cock crows. 

If thou art privy to thy country's fate. 

Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, 

0, speak ! 135 

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life 

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, 

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, 

Speak of it : stay, and speak ! Stop it, Marcellus. 

Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan ? 140 

Hor. Do, if it will not stand. ' 

Ber. 'T is here ! 

Hor. 'T is here ! 

Mar. 'T is gone ! \_Exit Ghost. 

We do it wrong, being so majestical, 



ACT I. SCENE I. 7 

To offer it the show of violence ; 

For it is, as the air, invuhierable, 146 

And our vain blows malicious mockery. 

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. 

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing 
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard. 
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 150 

Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 
^ Awake the god of day ; and, at his warning. 
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air. 
The extravagant and erring spirit hies 
To his confine : and of the truth herein 155 

This present object made probation. 

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. 
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
The bird of dawning singeth all night long : 160 

And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; 
The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike. 
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
So hallowed and so gracious is the time. 

Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. 165 
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad. 
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill : 
Break we oiu- watch up ; and by my advice. 
Let us impart what we have seen to-night 
Unto young Hamlet ; for, upon my life, 170 

This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. 
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it. 
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty ? 

Mar. Let 's do 't, I pray ; and I this morning know 
Where we shall find him most conveniently. [Exeunt. 175 



8 HAMLET. 

Scene II. A room of state in the castle. 

Enter the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, 
VoLTiMAND, Cornelius, Lords, and Attendants. 

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death 
The memory be green, and that it us befitted 
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom 
To be contracted in one brow of woe. 
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 6 

That we with wisest sorrow think on him, 
Together with remembrance of ourselves. 
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, 
The imperial jointress to this warlike state, 
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy, — 10 

With one auspicious and one dropping eye, 
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, 
In equal scale weighing delight and dole, — 
Taken to wife : nor have we herein barred 
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 15 

With this affair along. For all, our thanks. 
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, 
Holding a weak supposal of our worth, 
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death 
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20 

Colleagued with the dream of his advantage. 
He hath not failed to pester us with message. 
Importing the surrender of those lands 
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, 
To our most valiant brother. So much for him. 25 

Now for ourself and for this time of meeting : 
This much the business is : we have here writ 



ACT I. SCENE II. . 9 

To Korway, uncle of young Fortinbras, — 

Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears 

Of this his nephew's purpose, — to suppress 30 

His further gait herein ; in that the levies. 

The lists and full proportions, are all made 

Out of his subject : and we here dispatch 

You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, 

For bearers of this greeting to old Norway ; 35 

Giving to you no further personal power 

To business with the king, more than the scope 

Of these dilated articles allow. 

Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. 

Cov. ) 

[- In that and all things will we show our duty. 40 

King. We doubt it nothing : heartily farewell. 

\^Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius. 
And now, Laertes, what 's the news with you ? 
You told us of some suit ; what is 't, Laertes ? 
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, 
And lose your voice : what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, 45 
That shall not be my offer, not thy asking ? 
The head is not more native to the heart. 
The hand more instrumental to the mouth, 
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. 
What wouldst thou have, Laertes ? 

Laer. My dread lord, 50 

Your leave and favor to return to France ; 
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, 
To show my duty in your coronation. 
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done. 
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France 55 
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. 



10 . HAMLET. 

King. Have you your father's leave ? What says 
Polonius ? 

Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow 
leave 
By laborsome petition, and at last 

Upon his will I sealed my hard consent : 60 

I do beseech you, give him leave to go. 

King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes ; time be thine. 
And thy best graces spend it at thy will ! 
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, — 

Ham. [Aside'] A little more than kin, and less than 
kind. 65 

Ki7ig. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ? 

Ham. Not so, my lord ; I am too much i' the sun. 

Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off. 
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. 
Do not forever with thy vailed lids 70 

Seek for thy noble father in the dust : 
Thou know'st 't is common : all that lives must die, 
Passing through nature to eternity. 

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. 

Queen. If it be, 

Why seems it so particular with thee ? 75 

Ham. Seems, madam ! nay, it is ; I know not 'seems.' 
'T is not alone my inky cloak, good mother, 
Nor customary suits of solemn black, 
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, 
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, 80 

Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, 
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief. 
That can denote me truly : these indeed seem, 
For they are actions that a man might play : 



ACT I. SCENE II. 11 

But I have that within which passeth show ; 85 

These but the trappings and the suits of woe. 

King. 'T is sweet and commendable in your nature, 
Hamlet, 
To give these mourning duties to your father: 
But, you must know, your father lost a father ; 
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound 90 

In filial obligation for some term 
To do obsequious sorrow : but to persever 
In obstinate condolement is a course 
Of impious stubbornness; 't is unmanly grief; 
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, 95 

A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, 
An understanding simple and unschooled : 
For what we know must be and is as common 
As any the most vulgar thing to sense. 
Why should we in our peevish opposition 100 

Take it to heart ? Fie ! 't is a fault to heaven, 
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, 
To reason most absurd; whose common theme 
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried. 
From the first corse till he that died to-day, 105 

' This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth 
This nnprevailing woe, and think of us 
As of a father : for let the world take note. 
You are the most immediate to our throne ; 
And with no less nobility of love 110 

Than that which dearest father bears his son, 
Do I impart toward you. For your intent 
In going back to school in Wittenberg, 
It is most retrograde to our desire : 
And we beseech you, bend you. to remain 115 



12 HAMLET. 

Here, in the cheer and comfort of onr eye, 
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. 

Quee7i. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet : 
I pray thee, stay with us ; go not to Wittenberg. 

Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. 120 

King. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply : 
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come ; 
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet 
Sits smiling to my heart : in grace whereof, 
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, 125 

But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell. 
And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again, 
K,e-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. 

l^Exeunt all but Hamlet. 

Ham. 0, that this too too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew ! 130 

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed 
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! God ! God ! 
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. 
Seem to me all the uses of this world ! 
Fie on 't ! ah fie ! 't is an unweeded garden, 135 

That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature 
Possess it merely. That it should come to this ! 
But two months dead : nay, not so much, not two : 
So excellent a king ; that was, to this, 
Hyperion to a satyr ; so loving to my mother 140 

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven 
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth ! 
Must I remember ? why, she would hang on him, 
As if increase of appetite had grown 
By what it fed on : and yet, within a month — 145 

Let me not think on 't — Frailty, thy name is woman! — 



ACT I. SCENE II. 13 

A little month, or ere those shoes were old 

With which she followed my poor father's body, 

Like Niobe, all tears : — why she, even she — 

God ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 150 

Wonld have mourned longer — married with my uncle, 

My father's brother, but no more like my father 

Than I to Hercules : within a month : 

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears 

Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, 155 

She married. 0, most wicked speed, to post 

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets ! 

It is not nor it cannot come to good : 

But break my heart ; for I must hold my tongue. 

Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. 

Hot. Hail to your lordship ! 160 

Ham.' I am glad to see you well : 

Horatio, — or do I forget myself. 

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant 
ever. 

Ham. Sir, my good friend ; I '11 change that name 
with you : 
And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ? 
Marcellus ? 165 

Mar. My good lord — 

Ham. I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir. 
But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ? 

Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. 

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so, 170 

Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, 
To make it truster of your own report 
Against yourself ; I know you are no truant. 



14 HAMLET. 

But what is your affair in Elsinore ? 

We 'II teach you to drink deep ere you depart. 175 

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. 

Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student ; 
I think it was to see my mother's wedding. 

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. 

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio ! the funeral baked 
meats 180 

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. 
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven 
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! 
My father ! — methinks I see my father. 

Hor. Where, my lord? 

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. 185 

Hor. I saw him once ; he was a goodly king. 

Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, 
I shall not look upon his like again. 

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. 

Ham. Saw ? who ? 190 

Hor. My lord, the king, your father. 

Ham. The king my father ! 

Hor. Season your admiration for a while 
With an attent ear, till I may deliver. 
Upon the witness of these gentlemen, 
This marvel to you. 

Ham. For God's love, let me hear. 195 

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, 
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch. 
In the dead vast and middle of the night. 
Been thus encountered. A figure like your father, 
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe, 200 

Appears before them, and with solemn march 



ACT I. SCENE II. 15 

Goes slow and stately by them : thrice he walked 

By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes, 

Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled 

Almost to jelly with the act of fear, 205 

Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me 

lu dreadful secrecy impart they did ; 

And I with them the third night kept the watch : 

Where, as they had delivered, both in time. 

Form of the thing, each word made true and good, 210 

The apparition comes : I knew your father ; 

These hands are not more like. 

Ham. But where was this ? 

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watched. 

Ham. Did you not speak to it ? 

Hor. My lord, I did ; 

But answer made it none : yet once methought 215 

It lifted up its head and did address 
Itself to motion, like as it would speak ; 
But even then the morning cock crew loud, 
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away. 
And vanished from our sight. 

Ham. 'T is very strange. 220 

Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 't is true ; 
And we did think it writ down in our duty 
To let you know of it. 

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. 
Hold you the watch to-night ? 225 

;^^l' \ We do, my lord. 

Ham. Armed, say you ? 

„ " y Armed, my lord. 



16 HAMLET. 

Ham. From top to toe ? 

MCLT. ) 

My lord, from head to foot. 



Ber. 

Ham. Then saw you not his face ? 

Hor. 0, yes, my lord ; he wore his beaver up. 230 

Ham. What, looked he frowningly ? 

Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. 

Ham. Pale or red ? 

Hor. Nay, very pale. 

Ho,m. And fixed his eyes upon you ? 

Hor. Most constantly. 235 

Ham. I would I had been there. 

Hor. It would have much amazed you. 

Ham. Very like, very like. Stayed it long ? 

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a 

hundred. 

]S£ar, ^ 

Longer, longer. 



Ber. 

Hor. Not when I saw 't. 

Ham. His beard was grizzled, — no ? 240 

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, 
A sable silvered. 

Ham. I will watch to-night; 

Perchance 't will walk again. 

Hor. I warrant it will. 

Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, 
I '11 speak to it though hell itself should gape 245 

And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, 
If you have hitherto concealed this sight, 
Let it be tenable in your silence still ; 
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night. 
Give it an understanding, but no tongue : 250 



ACT I. SCENE III. 17 

I will requite your loves. So, fare you well : 
Upou the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, 
I '11 visit you. 

All. Our duty to your honor. 

Ha7n. Your loves, as mine to you : farewell. 

\_Exeunt all hut Hamlet. 
My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well ; 255 

I doubt some foul play : would the night were come ! 
Till then sit still, my soul : foul deeds will rise, 
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. 

{Exit. 

Scene III. A room in Polonius' house. 
Enter Laertes and Ophelia. 

Laer. My necessaries are embarked : farewell : 
And, sister, as the winds give benefit 
And convoy is assistant, do not sleep. 
But let me hear from you. 

Oph. Do you doubt that ? 

Laer. For Hamlet and the trifling of his favor, 5 

Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, 
A violet in the youth of primy nature, 
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting. 
The perfume and suppliance of a minute ; 
No more. 10 

Oph. No more but so ? 

Laer. Think it no more : 

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone 
In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes, 
The inward service of the mind and soul 
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, 
c 



18 HAMLET. 

And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch 15 

The virtue of his will : but you must fear, 

His greatness weighed, his will is not his own ; 

For he himself is subject to his birth: 

He may not, as unvalued persons do. 

Carve for himself ; for on his choice depends 20 

The safety and the health of this whole state ; 

And therefore must his choice be circumscribed 

Unto the voice and yielding of that body 

Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, 

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it 25 

As he in his particular act and place 

May give his saying deed ; which is no further 

Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. 

Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain. 

If with too credent ear you list his songs, 30 

Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open 

To his unmastered importunity. 

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, 

And keep you in the rear of your affection. 

Out of the shot and danger of desire. 35 

The chariest maid is prodigal enough. 

If she unmask her beauty to the moon : 

Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes : 

The canker galls the infants of the spring. 

Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, 40 

And in the morn and liquid dew of youth 

Contagious blastments are most imminent. 

Be wary then ; best safety lies in fear : 

Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. 

Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, 45 
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, 



ACT I. SCENE III. 19 

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, 

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven ; 

Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine. 

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, 50 

And recks not his own rede. 

Laer. O, fear me not. 

I stay too long : but here my father comes. 

Enter Polonius. 

A double blessing is a double grace ; 
Occasion smiles upon a second leave. 

Pol. Yet here, Laertes ! aboard, aboard, for shame ! 55 
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail. 
And you are stayed for. There ; my blessing with thee ! 
And these few precepts in thy memory 
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue. 
Nor any unproportioned thought his act. 60 

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
Grapple tliem to thy soul with hoops of steel ; 
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware 65 
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in. 
Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. 
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice ; 
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement. 
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 70 

But not expressed in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ; 
For the apparel oft proclaims the man. 
And they in France of the best rank and station 
Are most select and generous in that. 
Neither a borrower nor a lender be ; 75 



20 HAMLET. 

For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 

This above all : to thine own self be true, 

And it must follow, as the night the day. 

Thou canst not then be false to any man. 80 

Farewell : my blessing season this in thee ! 

Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. 

Pol. The time invites you ; go ; your servants tend. 

Laer. Farewell, Ophelia ; and remember well 
What I have said to you. 85 

Oph. 'T is in my memory locked. 

And you yourself shall keep the key of it. 

Laer. Farewell. \^Exit. 

Pol. What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to you ? 

Oph. So please you, something touching the Lord 
Hamlet, 

Pol. Marry, well bethought : " 90 

'T is told me, he hath very oft of late 
Given private time to you; and you yourself 
Have of your audience been most free and bounteous : 
If it be so, as so 't is put on me. 

And that in way of caution, I must tell you, 95 

You do not understand yourself so clearly 
As it behoves my daughter and your honor. 
What is between you ? give me up the truth. 

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders 
Of his affection to me. 100 

Pol. Affection ! pooh ! you speak like a green girl. 
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. 
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them ? 

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think, 

Pol. Marry, I '11 teach you : think yourself a baby ; 105 



ACT I. SCENE III. 21 

That you have ta'en these tenders for trxie pay, 
AVhich are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly ; 
Or — not to cra(!k the wind of the poor phrase, 
Eunning it thus — you '11 tender me a fool. 

OpJi. My lord, he hath importuned me with love lio 
In honorable fashion. 

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it ; go to, go to. 

Ojih. And hath given countenance to his speech, my 
lord. 
With ahnost all the holy vows of heaven. 

Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, 115 
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul 
Lends the tongue vows : these blazes, daughter, 
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, 
Even in their promise, as it is a-making, 
You must not take for fire. Prom this time 120 

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence ; 
Set your entreatments at a higher rate 
Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, 
Believe so much in him, that he is young. 
And with a larger tether may he walk 125 

Than may be given you : in few, Ophelia, 
Do not believe his vows ; for they are brokers, 
Not of that dye which their investments show. 
But mere implorators of unholy suits, 
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, 130 

The better to beguile. This is for all : 
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, 
Have you so slander any moment's leisure. 
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. 
Look to 't, I charge you : come your ways. 135 

Oph. I shall obey, my lord. {^Exeunt. 



22 HAMLET. 

Scene IV. The platform. 
Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. 

Ham. The air bites shrewdly ; it is very cold. 

Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. 

Ham. What hour now ? 

Hor. I think it lacks of twelve. 

Ham. No, it is struck. 

Hor. Indeed ? I heard it not : then it draws near the 
season 5 

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. 

[^A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within. 
What does this mean, my lord ? 

Ham. The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, 
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels ; 
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, 10 

The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out 
The triumph of his pledge. 

Hor. Is it a custom ? 

Ham. Ay, marry, is 't : 
But to my mind, though I am native here 
And to the manner born, it is a custom 15 

More honored in the breach than the observance. 
This heavy-headed revel east and west 
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations : 
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase 
Soil our addition ; and indeed it takes 20 

From our achievements, though performed at height, 
The pith and marrow of our attribute. 
So, oft it chances in particular men. 
That for some vicious mole of nature in them. 



ACT I. SCENE IV. 23 

As, in their birth — wherein they are not guilty, 25 

Since nature cannot choose his origin — 

By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, 

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, 

Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens 

The form of plausive manners, that these men, 30 

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect. 

Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, — 

Their virtues else — be they as pure as grace, 

As infinite as man may undergo — 

Shall in the general censure take corruption 35 

From that particular fault : the dram of eale 

Doth all the noble substance of a doubt 

To his own scandal. 

Hor. Look, my lord, it comes! 

Enter Ghost. 

Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! 
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, 40 

Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, 
Be thy intents wicked or charitable. 
Thou comest in such a questionable shape 
That I will speak to thee : I '11 call thee Hamlet, 
King, father, royal Dane : 0, answer me ! 45 

Let me not burst in ignorance ; but tell 
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, 
Have burst their cerements ; why the sepulchre. 
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned, 
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, 50 

To cast thee up again. What may this mean. 
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel 
Eevisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, 



24 HAMLET. 

Making night hideous ; and we fools of nature 

So horridly to shake our disposition 55 

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ? 

Say, why is this ? wherefore ? what should we do ? 

[GJiost beckons Hamlet. 

Hor. It beckons you to go away with it, 
As if it some impartment did desire 
To you alone. 60 

Mar. Look, with what courteous action 

It waves you to a more removed ground : 
But do not go with it. 

Hor. N"o, by no means. 

Ham. It will not speak ; then I will follow it. 

Hor. Do not, my lord. 

Ham. Why, what should be the fear ? 

I do not set my life at a pin's fee ; 65 

And for my soul, what can it do to that. 
Being a thing immortal as itself ? 
It waves me forth again : I '11 follow it. 

Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, 
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff 70 

That beetles o'er his base into the sea. 
And there assume some other horrible form. 
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason 
And draw you into madness ? think of it : 
The very place puts toys of desperation, 75 

Without more motive, into every brain 
That looks so many fathoms to the sea 
And hears it roar beneath. 

Ham. It waves me still. 

Go o\\ ; I '11 follow thee. 

Mar. You shall not go, my lord. 80 



ACT I. SCENE V. 25 

Ham. Hold off your hands. 

Ho7'. Be rilled ; you shall not go. 

Ham. My fate cries out, 

And makes each petty artery in this body 
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. 
Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen. 
By heaven, I '11 make a ghost of him that lets me ! 85 

I say, away ! Go on : I '11 follow thee. 

l^Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. 

Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. 

Mar. Let 's follow; 't is not fit thus to obey him. 

Hor. Have after. To what issue will this come ? 

Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. 90 

Hor. Heaven will direct it. 

Mar. Nay, let 's follow him. [^Exeunt. 

Scene V. Another 2^art of the platform. 

Enter Ghost and Hamlet. 

Ham. Where wilt thou lead me ? speak ; I '11 go no 
further. 

Ghost. Mark me. 

Ham. I will. 

Ghost. My hour is almost come, 

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames 
Must render up myself. 

Ham. Alas, poor ghost ! 

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing 5 
To what I shall unfold. 

Ham. Speak ; I am bound to hear. 

Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. 

Ham. What ? 



26 HAMLET. 

GJiost. I am thy father's spirit, 
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, 10 

And for the day confined to fast in fires, 
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature 
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid 
To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 15 

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, 
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. 
Thy knotted and combined locks to part 
And each particular hair to stand an end, 
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine : 20 

But this eternal blazon must not be 
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, 0, list 
If thou didst ever thy dear father love — 

Ham. God ! 

GTiost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. 

Ham. Murder ! 26 

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is ; 
But this most foul, strange and unnatural. 

Ham. Haste me to know 't, that I, with wings as 
swift 
As meditation or the thoughts of love, 30 

May sweep to my revenge. 

Ghost. I find thee apt ; 

And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed 
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, 
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear : 
'T is given out that, sleeping in my orchard, 35 

A serpent stung me ; so the whole ear of Denmark 
Is by a forged process of my death 
Eankly abused : but know, thou noble youth, 



ACT L SCENE V. 27 

The serpent that did sting thy father's life 
Now wears his crown. 

IIa7n. my prophetic soul ! 40 

My uncle ! 

Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, 
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, — 
wicked wit and gifts, that have the power 
So to seduce ! — won to his shameful lust 45 

The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen: 

Hamlet, what a falling-off was there ! 
From me, whose love was of that dignity 
That it went hand in hand even with the vow 

1 made to her in marriage, and to decline 50 
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor 

To those of mine ! 

But virtue, as it never will be moved, 

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, 

So lust, though to a radiant angel linked, 55 

Will sate itself in a celestial bed, 

And prey on garbage. 

But, soft ! methinks I scent the morning air ; 

Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard. 

My custom always in the afternoon, 60 

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, 

With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, 

And in the porches of my ears did pour 

The leperous distilment ; whose effect 

Holds such an enmity with blood of man 65 

That swift as quicksilver it courses through 

The natural gates and alleys of the body, . '.' " -'■. 

And with a sudden vigor it doth posset f=./ •sfs ''■>■>■ f^^'Sl '"<^* 

And curd, like eager droppings into milk, ^. '<X'\ A --P '\\ ///L ^ 



28 HAMLET. 

The thin and wholesome blood : so did it mine ; 70 

And a most instant tetter barked about, 
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, 
All my smooth body. 
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand 
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatched : 75 

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, 
Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled. 
No reckoning made, but sent to my account 
With all my imperfections on my head: 
0, horrible ! 0, horrible ! most horrible ! • 80 

If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not ; 
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be 
A couch for luxury and damned incest. 
But, howsoever thou pursuest this act. 
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive 85 

Against thy mother aught : leave her to heaven 
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge. 
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once ! 
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near. 
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire : 90 

Adieu, adieu ! Hamlet, remember me. [^Exit. 

Ham. all you host of heaven ! earth ! what else ? 
And shall I couple hell ? 0, fie ! Hold, hold, my heart ; 
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old. 
But bear me stiffly up. Kemember thee ! 95 

Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat 
In this distracted globe. Remember thee ! 
Yea, from the table of my memory 
I '11 wipe away all trivial fond records. 
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, lOO 

That youth and observation copied there ; 



ACT I. SCENE V. 29 

And thy comnianduient all alone shall live 

Within the book and volume of my brain, 

Unmixed with baser matter : yes, by heaven ! 

most pernicious woman ! 105 

villain, villain, smiling, damned villain ! 
My tables, — meet it is I set it down, 

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain ; 
At least I 'm sure it may be so in Denmark : [^Vriting. 
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word ; iio 

It is ' Adieu, adieu ! remember me.' 

1 have sworn 't. 

TT . C [Witliin] My lord, my lord, — 

Mar. [ Withiyi] Lord Hamlet, — 

Hor. [^Within^ Heaven secure him ! 

Ham. So be it ! 

Hor. [ Within'] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord ! 

Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy ! come, bird, come, 115 

Enter Horatio and Makcellus. 

3Iar. How is 't, my noble lord ? 

Hor. What news, my lord ? 

Ham. 0, wonderful ! 

Hor. Good my lord, tell it. 

Ham. No ; you '11 reveal it. 

Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven. 120 

Ifar. Nor I, my lord. 

Ham. How say you, then ; would heart of man once 
think it ? 
But you '11 be secret ? 

j^f^^^. j ^y^ by heaven, my lord. 



30 HAMLET. 

Ham. There 's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark 
But lie 's an arrant knave. 

Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the 
grave 125 

To tell us this. 

Ham. Why, right ; you are i' the right ; 

And so, without more circumstance at all, 
I hold it fit that we shake hands and part : 
You, as your business and desire shall point you ; 
For every man has business and desire, 130 

Such as it is ; and for mine own poor part, 
Look you, I '11 go pray. 

Ho7\ These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. 

Ham. I 'm sorry they offend you, heartily ; 
Yes, 'faith, heartily. 

Hor. There 's no offence, my lord. 135 

Ham. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, 
And much offence too. Touching this vision here. 
It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you : 
Por your desire to know what is between us, 
O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends, 140 
As you are friends, scholars and soldiers, 
Give me one poor request. 

Hor. What is 't, my lord ? we will. 

Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night. 

Hor ) 

y My lord, we will not. 145 

Ham. Nay, but swear 't, 

Hor. In faith, 

My lord, not I. 

Mar. Nor I, my lord, in faith. 

Ham. Upon my sword. 



ACT I. SCENE V. 31 

Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already. 

Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. 

Ghost. l^Beneath'] Swear. 

Havi. Ah, ha, boy ! say'st thou so ? art thou there, 
truepenny ? 150 

Come on — you hear this fellow in the cellarage — 
Consent to swear. 

Sor. Propose the oath, my lord. 

Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen, 
Swear by my sword. 

Ghost. \^Beneath'] Swear. 155 

Ham. Hie et ubique ? then we '11 shift our ground. 
Come hither, gentlemen. 
And lay your hands again upon my sword : 
Never to speak of this that you have heard. 
Swear by my sword. 160 

Ghost. [^Beneath'] Swear. 

Ham. Well said, old mole ! canst work i' the earth so 
fast? 
A worthy pioner ! Once more remove, good friends. 

Hor. day and night, but this is wondrous strange ! 

Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. 
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 166 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 
Bat come ; 

Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, 
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, 170 

As I perchance hereafter shall think meet 
To put an antic disposition on. 
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall. 
With arms encumbered thus, or this head-shake. 
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, 175 



32 HAMLET. 

As ' Well, well, we know,' or ' We could, an if we would,^ 

Or ' If we list to speak,' or ' There be, an if they might,' 

Or such ambiguous giving out, to note 

That you know aught of me : this not to do. 

So grace and mercy at your most need help you, 180 

Swear. 

Ghost. [^BeneatJi] S^vear. 

Ham. Eest, rest, perturbed spirit! {_They swear.'] 
So, gentlemen. 
With all my love I do commend me to you : 
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is 185 

May do, to express his love and friending to you, 
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together ; 
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. 
The time is out of joint : cursed spite. 
That ever I was born to set it right ! 190 

Nay, come, let 's go together. [Exeunt. 

ACT II. 

Scene I. A room in Polonius' hoicse. 
Enter Polonius and Rbynaldo. 

Pol. Give him this money and these notes, Eeynaldo. 

Bey. I will, my lord. 

Pol. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo, 
Before you visit him, to make inquire 
Of his behavior. 5 

Pey. My lord, I did intend it. 

Pol. Marry, well said ; very well said. Look you, sir. 
Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris ; 
And how, and who, what means, and where they keep. 
What company, at what expense ; and finding 



ACT II. SCENE I. 33 

By this encompassment and drift of question lo 

That they do knoAV my son, come you more nearer 

Than your particular demands will touch it : 

Take you, as 't were, some distant knowledge of him ; 

As thus, ' I know his father and his friends, 

And in part him : ' do you mark this, Reynaldo ? 15 

Mey. Ay, very well, my lord. 

Fol. ' And in part him ; but ' you may say ' not well : 
But, if 't be he I mean, he 's very wild ; 
Addicted so and so : ' and there put on him 
What forgeries you please ; marry, none so rank 20 

As may dishonor him ; take heed of that ; 
But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips 
As are companions noted and most known 
To youth and liberty. 

Bey. As gaming, my lord. 

Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling, 
Drabbing : you may go so far. 26 

Bey. My lord, that would dishonor him. 

Pol. 'Faith, no ; as you may season it in the charge. 
You must not put another scandal on him. 
That he is open to incontinency ; 30 

That 's not my meaning : but breathe his faults so quaintly 
That they may seem the taints of liberty, 
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, 
A savageness in unreclaimed blood, 
Of general assault. 

Mey. But, my good lord, — 

Pol. "Wherefore should you do this ? 

Bey. Ay, my lord, 

I would know that. 

Pol. Marry, sir, here 's my drift ; 



34 HAMLET. 

And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant : 

You laying these slight sullies on my son, 

As 't were a thing a little soiled i' the working, 40 

Mark you. 

Your party in converse, him you would sound, 

Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes" 

The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured 

He closes with you in this consequence ; 45 

' Good sir,' or so, or ' friend,' or ' gentleman,' 

According to the phrase or the addition 

Of man and country. 

Bey. Very good, my lord. 

Pol. And then, sir, does he this — he does — what was 
I about to say ? By the mass, I was about to say some- 
thing : where did I leave ? 51 

Bey. At ' closes in the consequence,' at ' friend or so,' 
and 'gentleman.' 

Pol. At ' closes in the consequence,' ay, marry ; 
He closes thus : ' I know the gentleman ; "■ 55 

I saw him yesterday, or t' other day. 
Or then, or then ; with such, or such ; and, as you say, 
There was a' gaming ; there o'ertook in 's rouse ; 
There falling out at tennis : ' or perchance, 
' I saw him enter such a house of sale,' 60 

Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. 
See you now ; 

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth : 
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach. 
With windlasses and with assays of bias, 65 

By indirections find directions out : 
So by my former lecture and advice. 
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not ? 



ACT 11. SCENE I. 35 

Bey. My lord, I have. 

Pol. God be wi' you ; fare you well. 

Bey. Good my lord ! 70 

Pol. Observe liis inclination in yourself. 

Bey. I shall, my lord. 

Pol. And let him ply his music. 

Bey. Well, my lord. 

Pol. Farewell ! \_Exit Beynaldo. 

Enter Ophelia. 

How now, Ophelia ! what 's the matter ? 

OjjJi. 0, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted ! 

Pol. With what, i' the name of God ? 76 

Gjjh- My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, 
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced ; 
Ko hat upon his head ; his stockings fouled, 
Ungartered and down-gyved to his ancle ; 80 

Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; 
And with a look so piteous in purport 
As if he had been loosed out of hell 
To speak of horrors, — he comes before me. 

Pol. Mad for thy love ? 85 

Ojyh. My lord, I do not know ; 

But truly, I do fear it. 

Pol. What said he ? 

Oj^h. He took me by the wrist and held me hard ; 
Then goes he to the length of all his arm ; 
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, 
He falls to such perusal of my face 90 

As he would draw it. Long stayed he so ; 
At last, a little shaking of mine arm 
And thrice his head thus waving up and down, 



36 HAMLET. 

He raised a sigh so piteous and profound 

That it did seem to shatter all his bulk 95 

And end his being : that done, he lets me go : 

And, with his head over his shoulder turned. 

He seemed to find his way without his eyes ; 

For out o' doors he went without their help, 

And, to the last, bended their light on me. 100 

Pol. Come, go with me : I will go seek the king. 
This is the very ecstasy of love. 
Whose violent property fordoes itself 
And leads the will to desperate undertakings 
As oft as any passion under heaven 105 

That does afflict our natures. I am sorry. 
What, have you given him any hard words of late ? 

Oph. No, my good lord, but, as you did command, 
I did repel his letters and denied 
His access to me. lie 

JPol. That hath made him mad. 

I am sorry that with better heed and judgement 
I had not quoted him : I feared he did but trifle. 
And meant to wreck thee ; but, beshrew my jealousy ! 
By heaven, it is as proper to our age 
To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions 115 

As it is common for the younger sort 
To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king : 
This must be known ; which, being kept close, might 

move 
More grief to hide than hate to utter love. \^Exeunt. 



ACT II. SCENE II. 37 



Scene II. A room in the castle. 

Enter King, Queen, Kosencrantz, Guildenstern, and 
Attendants. 

King. Welcome, dear Eosencrantz and Guildenstern ! 
Moreover that we much did long to see you, 
The need we have to use you did provoke 
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard 
Of Hamlet's transformation ; so call it, 5 

Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man 
Eesembles that it was. What it should be, 
More than his father's death, that thus hath put him 
So much from the understanding of himself, 
I cannot dream of : I entreat you both, 10 

That being of so young days brought up with him. 
And sith so neighbored to his youth and humor 
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court 
Some little time : so by your companies 
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, 15 

So much as from occasion you may glean. 
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus. 
That, opened, lies within our remedy. 

Queen. Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you ; 
And sure I am two men there are not living 20 

To whom he more adheres. If it will please yon 
To show us so much gentry and good will 
As to expend your time with us awhile, 
For the supply and profit of our hope. 
Your visitation shall receive such thanks 25 

As fits a king's remembrance. 

Ros. Both your majesties 



38 HAMLET. 

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, 
Put your dread pleasures more into command 
Than to entreaty. 

Guil. But we both obey, 

And here give up ourselves, in the full bent 30 

To lay our service freely at your feet, 
To be commanded. 

King. Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. 

Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Kosencrantz. 
And I beseech you instantly to visit 35 

My too much changed son. Go, some of you, 
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. 

Guil. Heavens make our presence and our practices 
Pleasant and helpful to him ! 

Queen. Ay, amen ! 

\_JExeunt Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and some Attendants. 

Enter Polonius. 

Pol. The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, 40 
Are joyfully returned. 

King. Thou still hast been the father of good news. 

Pol. Have I, my lord? I assure you, my good 
liege, 
I hold my duty, as I hold my soul. 

Both to my God, and to my gracious king : 45 

And I do think, or else this brain of mine 
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure 
As it hath used to do, that I have found 
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. 

King. 0, speak of that ; that do I long to hear. 50 

Pol. Give first admittance to the ambassadors ; 
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. 



ACT II. SCENE II. 39 

King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. 

\_Exit Polonius. 
He tells me, my dear Gertrude he hath found 
The head and source of all your son's distemper. 55 

Queen. I doubt it is no other but the main ; 
His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage. 

King. Well, we shall sift him. 

Re-enter Polonius, with Voltimand and Cornelius. 

Welcome, my good friends ! 
Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway ? 

Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires. 60 
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress 
His nephew's levies ; which to him appeared 
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack ; 
But, better looked into, he truly found 
It was against your highness : whereat grieved, 65 

That so his sickness, age and impotence 
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests 
On Fortinbras ; which he, in brief, obeys ; 
Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine 
Makes vow before his uncle never more 70 

To give the assay of arms against your majesty. 
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy. 
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee. 
And his commission to employ those soldiers. 
So levied as before, against the Polack : 75 

With an entreaty, herein further shown, \_Giving a x>aper. 
That it might please you to give quiet pass 
Through your dominions for his enterprise. 
On such regards of safety and allowance 
As therein are set down. 80 



40 HAMLET. 

King. It likes us well ; 

And at our more considered time we '11 read, 
Answer, and think upon this business. 
Meantime we thank you for your well-took labor : 
Go to your rest ; at night we '11 feast together ; 
Most welcome home ! 85 

[Exetmt Voltimand and Cornelius. 

Pol. This business is well ended. 

My liege, and madam, to expostulate 
What majesty should be, what duty is. 
Why day is day, night night, and time is time. 
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. 
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, 90 

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, 
I will be brief : your noble son is mad : 
Mad call I it ; for, to define true madness, 
What is 't but to be nothing else but mad ? 
But let that go. 95 

Queen. More matter, with less art. 

Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. 
That he is mad, 't is true : 't is true 't is pity ; 
And pity 't is 't is true : a foolish figure ; 
But farewell it, for I will use no art. 

Mad let us grant him, then : and now remains 100 

That we find out the cause of this effect. 
Or rather sayj the cause of this defect. 
For this effect defective comes by cause : 
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. 
Perpend. 105 

I have a daughter — have while she is mine — 
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark. 
Hath given me this : now gather, and surmise. [_Reads. 



ACT II. SCENE II. 41 

' To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most beautified 
Ophelia/ — no 

That 's an ill phrase, a vile phrase ; ' beautified ' is a vile 
phrase : but you shall hear. Thus : [^Beads. 

' In her excellent vi^hite bosom, these, &c.' 
Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her ? 
Pol. Good madam, stay awhile ; I will be faithful. 115 

l^lieads. 
' Doubt thou the stars are fire ; 

Doubt that the sun doth move ; 
Doubt truth to be a liar ; 
But never doubt I love. 
'0 dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have 
not art to reckon my groans ; but that I love thee best, 
most best, believe it. Adieu. 122 

'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine 
is to him, Hamlet.' 
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me, 125 

And more above, hath his solicitings, 
As they fell out by time, by means and place, 
All given to mine ear. 

iLing. But how hath she 

Received his love ? 

Pol. What do you think of me ? 

King. As of a man faithful and honorable. 130 

Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you 
think. 
When I had seen this hot love on the wing — 
As I perceived it, I must tell you that. 
Before my daughter told me — Avhat might you. 
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, 135 

If I had played the desk or table-book, 



42 HAMLET. 

Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb, 

Or looked upon this love with idle sight ; 

What might you think ? No, I went round to work. 

And my young mistress thus I did bespeak : 140 

' Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star ; 

This must not be : ' and then I precepts gave her, 

That she should lock herself from his resort. 

Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. 

Which done, she took the fruits of my advice ; 145 

And he, repulsed — a short tale to make — 

Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, 

Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness. 

Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, 

Into the madness wherein now he raves, 150 

And all we mourn for. 

King. Do you think 'tis this? 

Queen. It may be, very likely. 

Pol. Hath there been such a time — I'd fain know 
that — 
That I have positively said ' 'T is so,' 
When it proved otherwise ? 155 

King. Not that I know. 

Pol. [Pointing to his head mid shoulder'] Take this 
from this, if this be otherwise : 
If circumstances lead me, I will find 
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed 
Within the centre. 

Ki7ig. How may we try it further ? 

Pol. You know, sometimes he walks four hours 160 
together 
Here in the lobby. 

Queen. So he does indeed. 



ACT 11. SCENE II. 43 

Pol. At such a time I '11 loose my daughter to him: 
Be you and I behind an arras then ; 
Mark the encounter : if he love her not 
And be not from his reason fallen thereon, 165 

Let me be no assistant for a state, 
But keep a farm and carters. 

King. We will try it. 

Qwee/i. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes 
reading. 

Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away : 
I '11 board him presently. 

[Exeunt King, Queen, and Attendants. 

Enter Hamlet reading. 

0, give me leave : 170 

How does my good Lord Hamlet ? 

Hani. Well, God-a-mercy. 

Pol. Do you know me, my lord ? 

Ham. Excellent well ; you are a fishmonger. 

Pol. Not I, my lord. 175 

Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. 

Pol. Honest, my lord! 

Ham. Ay, sir ; to be honest, as this world goes, is to 
be one man picked out of ten thousand. 

Pol. That 's very true, my lord. 180 

Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, 
being a god kissing carrion, — Have you a daughter ? 

Pol. I have, my lord. 

Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun : friend look to 't. 

Pol. \_Aside'] How say you by that ? Still harping 
on my daughter : yet he knew me not at first ; he said I 
was a fishmonger : he is far gone, far gone : and truly in 



44 HAMLET. 

my youth I suffered much extremity for love ; very near 
this, I '11 speak to him again. What do you read, my 
lord ? 193 

Ham. Words, words, words. 

Pol. What is the matter, my lord ? 

Ham. Between who ? 

Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. 197 

Ham. Slanders, sir : for the satirical rogue says here 
that old men have grey beards, that their faces are 
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree 
gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together 
with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most 
powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty 
to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old 
as I am, if like a crab you could go backward. 206 

Pol. [Aside'] Though this be madness, yet £heve is 
method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord ? 

Ham. Into my grave. 

Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside] How preg- 
nant sometimes his replies are ! a happiness that often 
madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so 
prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and sud- 
denly contrive the means of meeting between him and 
my daughter. — My honorable lord, I will most humbly 
take my leave of you. 218 

Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I 
will more willingly part withal : except my life, except 
my life, except my life. 

Pol. Fare you well, my lord. 

Ham. These tedious old fools ! 



.^ 



ACT II. SCENE II. 46 

Enter Eosencrantz and Guildenstern. 

Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet ; there he is. 

Ros. \_To Polonius'] God save you, sir! 225 

\_Exit Polonius. 

Guil. My honored lord ! 

Ros. My most dear lord ! 

Ham. My excellent good friends ! How dost thou, 
Guildenstern ? Ah, Rosencrantz ! Good lads, how do ye 
both ? 230 

Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. 

Guil. Happy, in that we are not over-happy ; 
On fortune's cap we are not the very button. 

Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe ? 

Ros. Neither, my lord. 

Ham. What 's the news ? 240 

Ros. None, my lord, but that the world 's grown 

honest. 

Ham. Then is doomsday near : but your news is not 
true. Let me question more in particular : what have 
you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, 
that she sends you to prison hither ? 246 

G^dl. Prison, my lord ! 

Ham. Denmark's a prison. 

Ros. Then is the world one. 250 

Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many con- 
fines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the 
worst. 

Ros. We think not so, my lord. 

Ham. Why, then, 't is none to you ; for there is noth- 
ing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so : to me 
it is a prison. 257 



46 HAMLET. 

Mos. Why then, your ambition makes it one ; 't is too 
narrow for your mind. 

Ham. God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and 
count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I 
have bad dreams. 262 

Guil. Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very 
substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a 
dream. 265 

Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. 

Bos. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light 
a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow. 

Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs 

and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we 

to the court ? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. 272 

Bos. ) 

fy -I \ We '11 wait upon yoiL 

Ham. No such matter : I will not sort you with the 
rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest 
man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten 
way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore ? 278 

Bos. To visit you, my lord ; no other occasion. 

Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks ; 
but I thank you : and sure, dear friends, my thanks are 
too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for ? Is it 
your own inclining ? Is it a free visitation ? Come, 
deal justly with me ; come, come ; nay, speak. 285 

Guil. What should we say, my lord ? 

Ham. Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were 
sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks 
which your modesties have not craft enough to color : I 
know the good king and queen have sent for you. 291 

Bos. To what end, my lord ? 



ACT II. SCENE II. 47 

Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure 
you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy 
of our youth, by the obligation of oar ever-preserved love, 
and by what more dear a better proposer could charge 
you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you 
were sent for, or no. 

Bos. \_Aside to Ouil.'] What say you? 300 

Ham. \_Aside\ Nay, then, I have an eye of you. — If 
you love me, hold not off. 

Guil. My lord, we were sent for. 

Ham. I will tell you why ; so shall my anticipation 
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and 
queen moult no feather. I have of late — but wherefore 
I know not — lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of 
exercises ; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposi- 
tion that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a 
sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, 
look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majesti- 
cal roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other 
thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of 
vapors.' What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in 
reason ! how infinite in faculty ! in form and moving how 
express and admirable ! in action how like an angel ! in 
apprehension how like a god ! the beauty of the world ! 
the paragon of animals ! And yet, to me, what is this 
quintessence of dust? man delights not me : no, nor woman 
neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. 323 

Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. 

Ham. AVhy did you laugh then, when I said 'man 
delights not me ' ? 

Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, 
what lenten entertainment the jDlayers shall receive from 



48 HAMLET. 

you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they 
coming, to offer you service. 331 

Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome ; his 
majesty shall have tribute of me ; the adventurous knight 
shall use his foil and target ; the lover shall not sigh 
gratis ; the humorous man shall end his part in peace ; 
the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled 
o' the sere ; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or 
the blank verse shall halt for 't. What players are 
they ? 340 

Mos. Even those you were wont to take delight in, the 
tragedians of the city. 

Ham. How chances it they travel ? their residence, 
both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. 345 

Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of 
the late innovation. 

Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when 
I was in the city ? are they so followed ? 350 

Ros. No, indeed, are they not. 

Ham. How comes it ? do they grow rusty ? 

Ros. Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace : 
but there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that 
cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically 
clapped for 't : these are now the fashion, and so berattle 
the common stages — so they call them — that many 
wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce 
come hither. 360 

Ham. What, are they children ? who maintains 'em ? 
how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality 
no longer than they can sing ? will they not say after- 
wards, if they should grow themselves to common players 
— as it is most like, if their means are no better — their 



ACT II. SCENE 11. 49 

writers do tliem wrong, to make them exclaim against 
their own succession ? 368 

Bos. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides ; 
and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to contro- 
versy : there was, for a while, no money bid for argu- 
ment, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the 
question. 373 

Ham. Is 't possible ? 

Guil. 0, there has been much throwing about of 
brains. 376 

Ham. Do the boys carry it away ? 

Bos. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his 
load too. 

Ha7n. It is not very strange ; for mine uncle is king 
of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him 
while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hun- 
dred ducats a-piece for his picture in little. 'Sblood, 
there is something in this more than natural, if philoso- 
phy could find it out. 385 

[Flourish of trumpets within. 

Guil. There are the players. 

Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your 
hands, come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fash- 
ion and ceremony : let me comply with you in this garb, 
lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must 
show fairly outward, should more appear like entertain- 
ment than yours. You are welcome : but my uncle-father 
and aunt-mother are deceived. 

Guil. In what, my dear lord ? 395 

Ham. I am but mad north-north-west : when the wind 
is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. 



50 HAMLET, 



Enter Polonius. 



Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen ! 

Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern ; and you too : at each 
ear a hearer : that great baby you see there is not yet 
out of his swaddling-clouts. 40l 

Ros. Happily he 's the second time come to them ; for 
they say an old man is twice a child. 

Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the 
players ; mark it. — You say right, sir : o' Monday 
morning ; 't was so indeed. 407 

Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. 

Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Ros- 
cius was an actor in Rome, — 410 

Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. 

Ham. Buz, buz ! 

Pol. Upon mine honor, — 

Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, — 

Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, 
comedy, history, pastoral, j)3,storal-comical, historical- 
pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical- 
pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited : Seneca 
cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law 
of writ and the liberty, these are the only men. 421 

Ham. Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure 
hadst thou ! 

Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord ? 

Ham. Why, ' 425 

' One fair daughter, and no more. 
The which he loved passing well.' 

Pol. [^Aside] Still on my daughter. 

Ham. Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah ? 



ACT II. SCENE II. 51 

Pol. If you call me Jephtliali, my lord, I have a daugh- 
ter that I love passing well. 431 

Ham. Nay, that follows not. 

Pol. What follows, then, my lord ? 

Ham. Why, 

' As by lot, God wot,' 435 

and then, you know, 

^ It came to pass, as most like it Avas,' — 
the first row of the pious chanson will show you more ; 
for look, where my abridgements come. 

Enter four or five Players. 

You are welcome, masters ; welcome, all. I am glad to 
see thee Avell. Welcome, good friends. 0, my old friend ! 
thy face is valanced since I saw thee last : comest thou 
to beard me in Denmark ? What, my young lady and 
mistress ! By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven 
than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. 
Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be 
not cracked within the ring. Masters, you are all 
Avelcome. We '11 e'en to 't like French falconers, fly at 
any thing. we see: we'll have a speech straight: come, 
give us a taste of your quality ; come, a passionate 
speech. 452 

First Play. What speech, my lord ? 

Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was 
never acted ; or, if it was, not above once ; for the play, I 
remember, pleased not the million ; 't was caviare to the 
general : but it was — as I received it, and others, whose 
judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine — an 
excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with 
as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there 



52 HAMLET, 

« 

were no sallets in tlie lines to make the matter savory, 
nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author 
of affectation ; but called it an honest method, as whole- 
some as sweet, and by very much more handsome than 
fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved : 't was Eneas' 
tale to Dido ; and thereabout of it especially, where he 
speaks of Priam's slaughter : if it live in your memory, 
begin at this line : let me see, let me see — 471 

' The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,' — 
it is not so : — it begins with Pyrrhus : — 

' The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms. 
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble 475 

When he lay couched in the ominous horse, 
Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared 
With heraldry more dismal ; head to foot 
Now is he total gules ; horribly tricked 
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, 480 
Baked and impasted with the parching streets, 
That lend a tyrannous and damned light 
To their lord's murder : roasted in wrath and fire, 
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, 
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus 485 
Old grandsire Priam seeks.' 
So, proceed you. 

Pol. 'Fore G-od, my lord, well spoken, with good accent 
and good discretion. 

First Play. ' Anon he finds him 490 

Striking too short at Greeks ; his antique sword, 
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, 
Repugnant to command : unequal matched, 
Pyrrhus at Priam drives ; in rage strikes wide ; 
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword 495 



ACT II. SCENE II. 53 

The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, 

Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top 

Stoops to his base, and Avith a hideous crash 

Takes prisoner Fyrrhus' ear : for, lo ! his sword, 

Which was declining on the milky head 500 

Of reverend Priam, seemed i' the air to stick : 

So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood. 

And like a neutral to his will and matter, 

Did nothing. 

Bat, as we often see, against some storm, 505 

A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, 

The bold wind speechless and the orb below 

As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder 

Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause, 

Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work ; 5io 

And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall 

On Mars's armor forged for proof eterne 

With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword 

Now falls on Priam. 

Out, out, thou strumpet, Portune! All you gods, 515 

In general synod, take away her power ; 

Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, 

And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, 

As low as to the fiends ! ' 

Pol. This is too long. 520 

Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee, 
say on : he 's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps : 
say on : come to Hecuba. 

First Play. ' But who, 0, who had seen the mobled 
queen — ' 525 

Ham. * The mobled queen ? ' 

Pol. That 's good ; ' mobled queen ' is good. 



54 HAMLET. 

First Play. ' Run barefoot up and down, threatening 
the flames 
With bisson rheum ; a clout upon that head 
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, 530 

About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins, 
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up ; 
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, 
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pro- 
nounced : 
But if the gods themselves did see her then 535 

When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport 
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, 
The instant burst of clamor that she made. 
Unless things mortal move them not at all. 
Would have made milch the burning eyes of 
heaven, 540 

And passion in the gods.' 
Pol. Look, whether he has not turned his color and 
has tears in 's eyes. Pray you, no more. 

Ham. 'T is well ; I '11 have thee speak out the rest soon. 
G-ood my lord, will you see the players well bestowed ? 
Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the 
abstract and brief chronicles of the time : after your 
death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill 
report while you live. 551 

Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their 
desert. 

Ham. God's body kins, man, much better : use every 
man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping ? 
Use them after your own honor and dignity : the less 
they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take 
them in. 558 

Pol. Come, sirs. 



ACT II. SCENE II. 55 

Ham. Follow him, friends : we '11 hear a play to-mor- 
row. \_Exit Poloidus with all the Pkv/ers but the First.'] 
Dost thou hear me, old friend ; can you play the Murder 
of Gonzago ? 563 

First Play. Ay, my lord. 

Ham. We '11 ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a 
need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, Avhich 
I would set down and insert in 't, could you not ? 568 

Fi7'st Play. Ay, my lord. 

Ham. Very Avell. Follow that lord; and look you 
mock him not. [E.vit First Player.^ My good friends, 
I '11 leave you till night : you are welcome to Elsinore. 573 

Bos. Good my lord ! 

Ham. Ay, so, God be Avi' ye ; \_Exeunt Rosencrantz and 
Guildensterji.] Now I am alone. 577 

0, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! 
Is it not monstrous that this player here, 
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, 
Could force his soul so to his own conceit 
That from her working all his visage wanned, 580 

Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspect, 
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting 
With forms to his conceit ? and all for nothing ! 
For Hecuba ! 

AVhat 's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, 585 

That he should weep for her ? What would he do, 
Had he the motive and the cue for passion 
That I have ? He would drown the stage with tears 
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech. 
Make mad the guilty and appal the free, 590 

Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed 
The very faculties of eyes and ears. 



56 HAMLET. 

Yet I, 

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, 

Like John-a-dreams, unpregnaut of my cause, 595 

And can say nothing ; no, not for a king. 

Upon whose property and most dear life 

A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward ? 

Who calls me villain ? breaks my pate across ? 

Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face ? 600 

Tweaks me by the nose ? gives me the lie i' the throat, 

As deep as to the lungs ? who does me this ? 

Ha! 

'S wounds, I should take it : for it cannot be 

But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall 605 

To make oppression bitter, or ere this 

I should have fatted all the region kites 

With this slave's offal : bloody, bawdy villain ! 

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain ! 

0, vengeance! 610 

Why, what an ass am I ! This is most brave, 

That I, the son of a dear father murdered. 

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell. 

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, 

And fall arcursing, like a very drab, 615 

A scullion ! 

Fie upon 't ! f oh ! About, my brain ! I have heard 

That guilty creatures sitting at a play 

Have by the very cunning of the scene 

Been struck so to the soul that presently 620 

They have proclaimed their malefactions ; 

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak . 

With most miraculous organ. I '11 have these players 

Play something like the murder of my father 



..isM 



ACT III. SCENE I. 67 

Before my uncle : I '11 observe his looks ; 625 

I '11 tent liim to the quick : if he but blench, 

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen 

May be the devil : and the devil hath power 

To assume a pleasing shape ; yea, and perhaps 

Out of my weakness and my melancholy, 630 

As he is very potent with such spirits. 

Abuses me to damn me : I '11 have grounds 

More relative than this : the play 's the thing 

Wherein I '11 catch the conscience of the king. 

[Exit. 

ACT III. 

Scene I. A room in the castle. 
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Kosencrantz, 

and GUILDENSTERN. 

King. And can you, by no drift of circumstance, 
Get from him why he puts on this confusion, 
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet 
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy ? 

Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted ; 5 
But from what cause he will by no means speak. 

Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, 
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof. 
When we would bring him on to some confession 
Of his true state. 

Qiieen. Did he receive you well ? lo 

Ros. Most like a gentleman. 

Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. 

Ros. Niggard of question ; but, of our demands, 
Most free in his reply. 



58 HAMLET. 

Queen. Did you assay him 

To any pastime ? 15 

Mos. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players 
We o'er-raught on the way : of these we told him ; 
And there did seem in him a kind of joy 
To hear of it : they are about the court. 
And, as I think, they have already order 20 

This night to play before him. 

Pol. 'T is most true : 

And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties 
To hear and see the matter. 

King. With all my heart ; and it doth much content 
me 
To hear him so inclined. 25 

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, 
And drive his purpose on to these delights. 

Hos. We shall, my lord. 

[^Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 

King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too ; 

For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, 
That he, as 't were by accident, may here 30 

Affront Ophelia : 

Her father and myself, lawful espials, 
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen, 
We may of their encounter frankly judge, 
And gather by him, as he is behaved, 35 

If 't be the affliction of his love or no 
That thus he suffers for. 

Queen. I shall obey you. 

And for your x^art, Ophelia, I do wish 
That your good beauties be the happy cause 
Of Hamlet's wildness : so shall I hope your virtues 40 



ACT in. SCENE I. 59 

Will bring hi in to liis wonted way again, 
To both yonr honors. 

Ojih. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen. 

Pol. Ophelia, Avalk you here. Gracious, so please you, 
We will bestow ourselves. [To Ophelia'] Read on this 

book ; 
That show of such an exercise may color 45 

Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this, — 
'T is too much proved — that with devotion's visage 
And pious action we do sugar o'er 
The devil himself. 

King. \^Asicle] 0, 't is too true ! 
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience ! 
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, 51 

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it 
Than is my deed to my most painted word : 
heavy burthen ! 

Pol. I hear him coming : let 's withdraw, my lord. 55 

[^Exeunt King and Polonius. 

Enter Hamlet. 

Ham. To be, or not to be : that is the question: 
Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer 
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. 
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles. 
And by opposing end them. To die : to sleep ; 60 

No more ; and by a sleep to say we end 
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks 
That flesh is heir to, 't is a consummation 
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep ; 
To sleep : perchance to dream : ay, there 's the rub ; 65 
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come 



60 HAMLET. 

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 

Must give us pause : there 's the respect 

That makes calamity of so long life ; 

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 70 

The oppressor's Avrong, the proud man's contumely. 

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay. 

The insolence of office and the spurns 

That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 

When he himself might his quietus make 75 

With a bare bodkin ? Who would fardels bear. 

To grunt and sweat under a weary life. 

But that the dread of something after death. 

The undiscovered country from whose bourn 

No traveller returns, puzzles the will 80 

And makes us rather bear those ills we have 

Than fly to others that we know not of ? 

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all ; 

And thus the native hue of resolution 

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, 85 

And enterprises of great pith and moment 

With this regard their currents turn awry, 

And lose the name of action. — Soft you now ! 

The fair Ophelia ! Nymph, in thy orisons 

Be all my sins remembered. 

Opli. Good my lord, 90 

How does your honor for this many a day ? 

Ham. I humbly thank you ; well, well, well. 

Opli. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, 
That I have longed long to re-deliver ; 
I pray you, now receive them. 95 

Ham. No, not I ; 

I never gave you aught. 



ACT III. SCENE I. 61 

Oj^h. My honored lord, you know right well you 
did ; 
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed 
As made the things more rich : their perfume lost. 
Take these again ; for to the noble mind lOO 

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. 
There, my lord. 

Ham. Ha, ha ! are you lionest ? 

Ojjh. My lord ? 

Ham. Are you fair ? 105 

Oph. What means your lordship ? 

Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty 
should admit no discourse to your beauty. 

Ojyh. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce 
than with honesty ? 110 

Ham. Ay, truly ; for the power of beauty will sooner 
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the 
force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness : 
this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it 
proof. I did love you once. iiG 

Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. 

Ham. You should not have believed me ; for virtue 
cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it : 
I loved you not. 120 

Ojyh. I was the more deceived. 

Ha7n. Get thee to a nunnery : why wouldst thou be 
a breeder of sinners ? I am myself indifferent honest ; 
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were 
better my mother had not borne me : I am very proud, 
revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck 
than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to 
give them shape, or time to act them in. What should 



62 HAMLET. 

such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven ? 
We are arrant knaves, all ; believe none of us. Go thy 
ways to a nunnery. Where 's your father ? 133 

Ojj/i. At home, my lord. 

Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may 
play the fool no where but in 's own house. Farewell. 

Op/i. 0, help him, you sweet heavens ! 138 

Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague 
for thy dowry : be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, 
thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, 
go : farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool ; 
for wise men know well enough what monsters you make 
of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell. 
. Oph. heavenly powers, restore him ! 147 

Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough ; 
God has given you one face, and you make yourselves an- 
other : you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name 
God's creatures, and make your wantonness your igno- 
rance. Go to, I '11 no more on 't ; it hath made me mad. I 
say, we will have no more marriages : those that are mar- 
ried already, all but one, shall live ; the rest shall keep as 
they are. To a nunnery, go. \^JExit. 156 

Oph. 0, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! 
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword ; 
The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 160 

The glass of fashion and the mould of form, 
The observed of all the observers, quite, quite down ! 
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched. 
That sucked the honey of his music vows, 
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 165 

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; 
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth 



ACT III. SCENE I. 63 

Blasted with ecstasy : 0, woe is me, 

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see ! 

lie-enter King and Polonius. 

King. Love ! his affections do not that way tend ; 170 
Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, 
Was not like madness. There 's something in his soul. 
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood ; 
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose 
Will be some danger : which for to prevent, 175 

I have in quick determination 
Thus set it down : he shall with speed to England, 
For the demand of our neglected tribute : 
Haply the seas and countries different 
With variable objects shall expel 180 

This something-settled matter in his heart, 
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus 
From fashion of himself. What think you on 't ? 

Pol. It shall do well : but yet do I believe 
The origin and commencement of his grief 185 

Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia ! 
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said ; 
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please ; 
But, if you hold it fit, after the play 

Let his queen mother all alone entreat him 190 

To show his grief : let her be round with him ; 
And I '11 be placed, so please you, in the ear 
Of all their conference. If she find him not, 
To England send him, or confine him where 
Your wisdom best shall think. 195 

King. It shall be so; 

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. {^Exeunt. 



64 HAMLET. 



Scene II. A hall in the castle. 
Enter Hamlet and Players. 

Hayn. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced 
it to you, trippingly on the tongue : but if you mouth it, 
as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier 
spoke my lines. jSTor do not saw the air too much with 
your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very tor- 
rent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of pas- 
sion, yoTi must acquire and beget a temperance that may 
give it smoothness. 0, it offends me to the soul to hear 
a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tat- 
ters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, 
who for the most part are capable of nothing but inex- 
plicable dumb-shows and noise : I would have such a fel- 
low whipped for o'erdoing Termagant ; it out-herods 
Herod : pray you, avoid it. 16 

First Play. I warrant your honor. 

Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own dis- 
cretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the 
word to the action; with this special observance, that 
you o'erstep not the modesty of nature : for any thing so 
overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both 
at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 't were, the 
mirror up to nature ; to show virtue her own feature, 
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the 
time his form a];id pressure. Now this overdone, or come 
tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but 
make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one 
must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of 
others. 0, there be players that I have seen play, and 



ACT III. SCENE II. 65 

heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it pro- 
fanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor 
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted 
and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's jour- 
neymen had made men and not made them well, they 
imitated humanity so abominably. 39 

First Play. I hope we have reformed that indifferently 
with us, sir. 

Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let those that 
play your clowns speak no more than is set doAvn for them ; 
for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on 
some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too ; though, 
in the mean time, some necessary question of the play be 
then to be considered : that's villanous, and shoAvs a most 
pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you 
ready. [Exeunt Players. 51 

Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. 

How noAV, my lord ! will the king hear this piece of work ? 

Pol. And the queen too, and that presently. 

Ham. Bid the players make haste. [Exit Polonius. 
Will you two help to hasten them ? 55 

■ y We will, my lord. 

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
Ham. What ho ! Horatio ! 

Enter Horatio. 

Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. 
Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man 
As e'er my conversation coped withal. 60 

Hot. 0, my dear lord, — 



66 HAMLET. 

Ham. N'ay, do not think I flatter ; 

For what advancement may I hope from thee 
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits, 
To feed and clothe thee ? Why should the poor be 

flattered ? 
ISTo, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, 65 

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee 
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear ? 
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice 
And could of men distinguish, her election 
Hath sealed thee for herself ; for thou hast been 70 

As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing, 
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards 
Hast ta'en with equal thanks : and blest are those 
Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled. 
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger 75 

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man 
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him 
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, 
As I do thee. — Something too much of this. — 
There is a play to-night before the king ; 80 

One scene of it comes near the circumstance 
Which I have told thee of my father's death : 
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot. 
Even with the very comment of thy soul 
Observe mine uncle : if his occulted guilt 85 

Do not itself unkennel in one speech. 
It is a damned ghost that we have seen. 
And my imaginations are as foul 
As Vulcan's stithy. G-ive him heedful note ; 
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, 90 

And after we will both our judgements join 
In censure of his seeming. 



ACT III. SCENE II. 67 

Hor. Well, my lord : 

If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, 
And 'scape detecting, I Avill pay the theft. 

Ham. They are coming to the play ; 1 must be idle : 
Get you a place. 96 

Danish march. A flourish. Enter King, Queen, Polonius, 
Ophelia, Eosenckantz, Guildenstern, and others. 

King. How fares our cousin Hamlet ? 

Ham. Excellent, i' faith ; of the chameleon's dish ; I 
eat the air, promise-crammed : you cannot feed capons so. 

King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet ; these 
words are not mine. 102 

Ham. ISTo, nor mine now. [To Polonius'] My lord, 
you played once i' the university, you say ? 

Pol. That did I, my lord ; and was accounted a good 
actor. 106 

Ham. What did you enact ? 

Pol. I did enact Julius Csesar : I was killed i' the 
Capitol ; Brutus killed me. 

Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a 
calf there. Be the players ready ? ill 

Ros. Ay, my lord ; they stay upon your patience. 

Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. 114 

Ham. No, good mother, here 's metal more attractive. 

Pol. [^To the King'] 0, ho ! do you mark that ? 

Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap ? 

\_Lying down at Ophelia'' s feet. 

Oph. You are merry, my lord. 

Ham. Who, I ? 130 

Oph. Ay, my lord. 

Ham. God, your only jig-maker. What should a 



68 HAMLET. 

man do but be merry ? for, look you, how cheerfully my 
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. 
Oph. Nay, 't is twice two months, my lord. 136 

Ham. So long ? Nay then, let the devil wear black, 
for I '11 have a suit of sables. heavens ! die two months 
ago, and not forgotten yet ? Then there 's hope a great 
man's memory may outlive his life half a year : but, by'r 
lady, he must build churches, then ; or else shall he suffer 
not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 
' For, 0, for, 0, the hobby-horse is forgot.' 145 

Hautboys play. The dumh-sliow enters. 

Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly ; the Queen em- 
bracing him, and he her. She kneels, arid makes show 
of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines 
his head upon her neck : lays him down upon a bank of 
flowers : she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes 
in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pows poison 
in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds 
the King dead, and makes passioiiate action. The Pois- 
oner, ivith some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seem- 
ing to' lament with her. The dead body is carried away. 
TJie Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts : she seems loath 
and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. 

\_Exeunt. 
Oph. What means this, my lord ? 
Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means 

mischief. 

Oph. Belike this show imports the argument of the 

play. 150 



ACT III. SCENE II. 69 

Enter Prologue. 

Ham. We sliall knoAv by this fellow: the players 
cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. 

Opli. Will he tell us what this show meant ? 

Ham. Ay, or any show that you '11 show him. 

Oph. I '11 mark the play. 

Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, 

Here stooping to your clemency, 160 

We beg your hearing patiently. \_ExU. 

Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring ? 

Ojih. 'T is brief, m}^ lord. 

Ham. As woman's love. 

Enter two Players, King and Queen. 

P. lung. Pull thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone 
round 165 

Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground, 
And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen 
About the world have times twelve thirties been 
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands 
Unite commutual in most sacred bands. 170 

P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon 
Make us again count o'er ere love be done ! 
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late, 
So far from cheer and from j^our former state, 
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, 175 

Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must : 
Por women's fear and love holds quantity ; 
In neither aught, or in extremity. 
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know ; 
And as my love is sized, my fear is so : 180 



70 HAMLET. 

Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear ; 
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. 

P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly 
too; 
My operant powers their functions leave to do : 
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, 185 

Honored, beloved ; and haply one as kind 
For husband shalt thou — 

P. Queen. 0, confound the rest ! 

Such love must needs be treason in my breast : 
In second husband let me be accurst ! 
None wed the second but who killed the first. 

Ham. l^Aside'] Wormwood, wormwood. 

P. Queen. The instances that second marriage move 
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love : 
A second time I kill my husband dead. 
When second husband kisses me in bed. 195 

P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak ; 
Bub what we do determine oft we break. 
Purpose is but the slave to memory, 
Of violent birth, but poor validity : 
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree ; 200 
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. 
Most necessary 't is that we forget 
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt : 
What to ourselves in passion we propose, 
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. 205 

The violence of either grief or joy 
Their own enactures with themselves destroy : 
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament ; 
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. 
This world is not for aye, nor 't is not strange 210 



ACT III. SCENE II. 71 

That even our loves should with our fortunes change ; 

For 't is a question left us yet to prove, 

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. 

The great man down, you mark his favorite flies ; 

The poor advanced makes friends of eneinies. 215 

And hitherto doth love on fortune tend ; 

For who not needs shall never lack a friend, 

And Avho in want a hollow friend doth try, 

Directly seasons him his enemy. 

But, orderly to end where I begun, 220 

Our wills and fates do so contrary run 

That our devices still are overthrown; 

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own : 

So think thou wilt no second husband wed ; 

But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. 225 

P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven 
light ! 
Sport and repose lock from me day and night ! 
To desperation turn my trust and hope ! 
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope ! 
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy 230 

Meet what I would have well and it destroy ! 
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife. 
If, once a widow, ever I be wife ! 

Ham. If she should break it now ! 

P. King. 'T is deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here 
awhile ; 235 

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile 
The tedious day with sleep. [/S/eeps. 

P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain ; 

And never come mischance between us twain ! \_Exit. 

Ham. Madam, how like you this play ? 



72 HAMLET. 

Queen. The lady protests too mucli, metliinks. 240 

Ham. 0, but she '11 keep her word. 

King. Have you heard the argument ? Is there no 
offence in 't ? 

Ham. Xo, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no 
offence i' the world. 245 

Kmg. What do you call the play ? 

Ham. The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. 
This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna : 
Gonzago is the duke's name ; his wife, Baptista : you 
shall see anon ; 't is a knavish piece of work : but what 
o' that? Your majesty and we that have free souls, 
it touches us not : let the galled jade wince, our withers 
are unwrung. 

Enter Lucianus. 

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. 

Op/i. You are as good as a chorus, my lord. 255 

Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if 

I could see the puppets dallying. — Begin, murderer ; 

pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come : ' the 

croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.' 265 

Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time 

agreeing ; 
Confederate season, else no creature seeing ; 
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, 
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, 
Thy natural magic and dire property, 270 

On wholesome life usurp immediately. 

[^Potirs the poison into the sleeper'' s ears. 
Ham. He poisons him i' the garden for 's estate. 



ACT III. SCENE II. 73 

His name's Gonzago: tlie story is extant, and writ in 
choice Italian : you shall see anon how the murderer gets 
the love of Gonzago's wife. 275 

Opli. The king rises. 
Ham. What, frighted with false fire ! 
Queen. How fares my lord ? 
Pol. Give o'er the play. 

King. Give me some light : away ! 280 

xill. Lights, lights, lights ! 

[^E.veunt all but Hamlet and Horatio. 
Ham. Why, let the stricken deer go weep. 
The hart ungalled play ; 
For some must watch, while some must sleep : 
So runs the world away. 285 

"Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers — if the rest 
of my fortunes turn Turk with me — with two Provin- 
cial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a 
cry of players, sir ? 

Hor. Half a share. 290 

Ham. A whole one, I. 

For thou dost know, Damon dear, 

This realm dismantled was 
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here 

A very, very — pajock. 295 

Hoi: You might have rimed. 

Ham. good Horatio, I '11 take the ghost's word for 
a thousand pound. Didst perceive ? 
Hor. Very well, my lord. 

Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning ? 300 

Hor. I did very well note him. 

Ham. Ah, ha ! Come, some music ! come, the 
recorders ! 



74 HAMLET. 

For if the king like not the comedy, 
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. 305 

Come, some music ! 

Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildensteen. 

Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. 

Ham. Sir, a whole history. 

Ouil. The king, sir, — 3io 

Ham. Ay, sir, what of him ? 

Guil. Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. 

Ham. With drink, sir ? 

Guil. No, my lord, rather with choler. 315 

Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to 
signify this to his doctor ; for, for me to put him to his 
purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler. 

Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some 
frame and start not so wildly from my affair. 321 

Ham. I am tame, sir : pronounce. 

Gruil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction 
of spirit, hath sent me to you. 

Ham. You are welcome. 325 

Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the 
right breed. If it shall please you to make me a whole- 
some answer, I will do your mother's commandment : if 
not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my 
business. 330 

Ham. Sir, I cannot. 

Guil. What, my lord ? 

Ham. Make you a wholesome answer ; my wit 's dis- 
eased : but, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall 
command ; or, rather, as you say, my mother : therefore 
no more, but to the matter : my mother, you say, — 337 



ACT in. SCENE II. 75 

Ros. Then thus she says ; your behavior hath struck 
her into amazement and admiration. 

Ham. wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! 
But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admi- 
ration ? 342 

Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere 
you go to bed. 

Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. 
Have you any further trade with us ? 346 

Ros. My lord, you once did love me. 

Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers. 

Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper ? 
you do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you 
deny your griefs to your friend. 353 

Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. 

Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the 
king himself for your succession in Denmark ? 357 

Ham. Ay, but sir, ' While the grass grows,' — the 
proverb is something musty. 

Re-enter Players ivith recorders. 

0, the recorders ! let me see one. To withdraw with you : 
— why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if 
you would drive me into a toil ? ' 362 

Guil. 0, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is 
too unmannerly. 

Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play 
upon this pipe ? 366 

Guil. My lord, I cannot. 

Ham. I pray you. 

Guil. Believe me, I cannot. 

Ham. I do beseech you. 370 



76 BAMLET. 

Guil. I know no toiicli of it, my lord. 

Ham. 'T is as easy as lying : govern these ventages 
with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your 
mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look 
you, these are the stops. 376 

Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance 
of harmony ; I have not the skill. 

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing 
you make of me ! You would play upon me ; you would 
seem to know my stops ; you would pluck out the heart 
of my mystery ; you would sound me from my lowest 
note to the top of my compass : and there is much music, 
excellent voice, in this little organ ; yet cannot you make 
it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played 
on than a pipe ? Call me what instrument you will, 
though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me. 

Enter Polonius. 
God bless you, sir ! 390 

Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and 
presently. 

Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that 's almost in shape 
of a camel ? 

Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. 395 

Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel. 

Pol. It is backed like a weasel. 

Ham. Or like a whale ? 

Pol. Very like a whale. 

Ham. Then I will come to my mother by and by. 
They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and 
by. 402 

Pol. I will say so. 



ACT III. SCENE III. 77 

Ham. By and by is easily said. [^Exit Polonius. 

Leave me, friends. \_Exetint all but Hamlet. 405 

'T is now the very witching time of night, 
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out 
Contagion to this world : now could I drink hot blood. 
And do such bitter business as the day 
Would quake to look on. Soft ! now to my mother. 4io 

heart, lose not thy nature ; let not ever 
The soul of iSTero enter this firm bosom : 
Let me be cruel, not unnatural : 

1 will speak daggers to her, but use none ; 

My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites ; 415 

How in my words soever she be shent, 

To give them seals never, my soul, consent ! [^Exit. 

Scene III. A room in the castle. 
Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. 

King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with ns 
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you ; 
I your commission will forthwith dispatch, 
And he to England shall along with you : 
The terms of our estate may not endure 5 

Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow 
Oiit of his lunacies. 

GuU. We will ourselves provide: 

Most holy and religious fear it is 
To keep those many many bodies safe 
That live and feed upon your majesty. lo 

Hos. The single and peculiar life is bound, 
With all the strength and armor of the mind. 
To keep itself from noyance ; but much more 



78 HAMLET. 

That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest 

The lives of many. The cease of majesty 15 

Dies not alone ; but, like a gulf, doth draw 

What 's near it with it : it is a massy wheel, 

Fixed on the summit of the highest mount. 

To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things 

Are mortised and adjoined; which, when it falls, 20 

Each small annexment, petty consequence. 

Attends the boisterous ruin. ISTever alone 

Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. 

King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage ; 
For we will fetters put upon this fear, 25 

Which now goes too free-footed. 

Bos. 



We will haste us. 
Guil. 

\_Exeunt Rosencrantz and Ouildenstern. 

Enter Polonius. 

Pol. My lord, he 's going to his mother's closet : 
Behind the arras I '11 convey myself. 
To hear the process ; I '11 warrant she '11 tax him home : 
And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 30 

'T is meet that some more audience than a mother, 
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear 
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege : 
I '11 call upon you ere you go to bed, 
And tell you what I know. 35 

King. Thanks, dear my lord. 

\_Exit Polonius. 
0, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; 
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't, 
A brother's murder. Pray can I not. 



ACT III. SCENE III. 79 

Though inclination be as sharp as will : 

My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent ; 40 

And, like a man to double business bound, 

I stand in pai^se where I shall first begin. 

And both neglect. What if this cursed hand 

Were thicker than itself Avith brother's blood, 

Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 45 

To wash it white as snow ? Whereto serves mercy 

But to confront the visage of offence ? 

And what 's in prayer but this two-fold force, 

To be forestalled ere we come to fall, 

Or pardoned being doAvn ? Then I '11 look up ; 50 

My fault is past. But, 0, what form of prayer 

Can serve my turn ? ' Forgive me my foul murder ' ? 

That cannot be ; since I am still possessed 

Of those effects for which I did the murder, 

My crown, mine own ambitioii and my queen. 55 

May one be pardoned and retain the offence ? 

In the corrupted currents of this world 

Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, 

And oft 't is seen the wicked prize itself 

Buys out the law: but 't is not so above ; 60 

There is no shuffling, there the action lies 

In his true nature ; and we ourselves compelled. 

Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 

To give in evidence. What then ? what rests ? 

Try what repentance can : what can it not ? 65 

Yet what can it when one cannot repent ? 

wretched state ! bosom black as death ! 

limed soul, that, struggling to be free. 

Art more engaged ! Help, angels ! Make assay ! 

Bow, stubborn knees ; and, heart with sti^ings of steel, 70 



80 HAMLET. 

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe ! 

All may be well. [^Betires and kneels. 

Enter Hamlet. 

Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying ; 
And now I '11 do 't. And so he goes to heaven ; 
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned : 75 

A villain kills my father ; and for that, 
I, his sole son, do this same villain send 
To heaven. 

0, this is hire and salary, not revenge. 
He took my father grossly, full of bread ; 80 

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May ; 
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven ? 
But in our circumstance and course of thought, 
'T is heavy with him : and am I then revenged, 
To take him in the purging of his soul, 85 

When he is fit and seasoned for his passage ? 
No! 

Up, sword ; and know thou a more horrid hent : 
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage. 
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; 90 

At gaming, swearing, or about some act 
That has no relish of salvation in 't ; 
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, 
And that his soul may be as damned and black 
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays : 95 

This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. \_ExU. 

King. \_Rising'\ My words fly up, my thoughts remain 
below : 
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. \_Exit. 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 81 

Scene IV. The Queen's closet. 
Enter Queen and Polonius. 

Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to 
him : 
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, 
And that your grace hath screened and stood between 
IMuch heat and him. I '11 sconce me even here. 
Pray you, be round with him. 5 

Ham. [ Within^ Mother, mother, mother ! 

Queen. I '11 warrant you, 

Pear me not : withdraw, I hear him coming. 

[Polonius hides behind the arras. 

Enter Hamlet. 

Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter? 

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 

Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended, lo 

Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. 

Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. 

Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet ! 

Ham. What 's the matter now ? 

Queen. Have you forgot me ? 

Ham. No, by the rood, not so : 

You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife ; 15 

And — would it were not so ! — you are my mother. 

Queen. Nay, then, I '11 set those to you that can speak. 

Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not 
budge ; 
You go not till I set you up a glass 
Where you may see the inmost part of you. 20 

G 



82 HAMLET. 

Queen. What wilt thou do ? thou wilt not murder me ? 
Help, help, ho ! 

Pol. [Behind'] What, ho ! help, help, help ! 

Ham. [Drawing] How now ! a rat ? Dead, for a 
ducat, dead ! 

[Makes a pass through the arras. 

Pol. [Behind^ 0, I am slain ! [Falls and dies. 

Queen. me, what hast thou done ? 25 

Ham. Nay, I know not : 

Is it the king ? 

Queen. 0, what a rash and bloody deed is this ! 

Ham. A bloody deed ! almost as bad, good mother. 
As kill a king, and marry with his brother. 

Queen. As kill a king ! 30 

Ham. Ay, lady, 't was my word. 

[Lifts up the arras and discovers Polonius. 
Thou wretched, rash, ilitruding fool, farewell ! 
I took thee for thy better : take thy fortune ; 
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger. 
Leave wringing of your hands : peace ! sit you down. 
And let me wring your heart ; for so I shall, 35 

If it be made of penetrable stuff. 
If damned custom have not brassed it so 
That it is proof and bulwark against sense. 

Queen. What have I done, that thou darest wag thy 
tongue 
In noise so rude against me ? 40 

Ham. Such an act 

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, 
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose 
From the fair forehead of an innocent love 
And sets a blister there ; makes marriage-vows 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 83 

As false as dicers' oaths : 0, such a deed 45 

As from the body of contraction plucks 

The ver}' soul, and sweet religion makes 

A rhapsody of words : heaven's face doth glow ; 

Yea, this solidity and compound mass, 

With tristful visage, as against the doom, 50 

Is thought-sick at the act. 

Queen. ' Ay me, what act, 

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? 

Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this, 
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. 
See, what a grace was seated on this brow ; 55 

Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself ; 
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; 
A station like the herald Mercury 
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ; 
A combination and a form indeed, 60 

Where every god did seem to set his seal. 
To give the world assurance of a man : 
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows : 
Here is your husband ; like a mildewed ear. 
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes ? 65 
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed. 
And batten on this moor ? Ha ! have you eyes ? 
You cannot call it love ; for at your age 
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it 's humble. 
And waits upon the judgement : and what judgement 70 
Would step from this to this ? Sense, sure, you have. 
Else could you not have motion ; but sure, that sense 
Is apoplexed ; for madness would not err. 
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled 
But it reserved some quantity of choice, 75 



84 HAMLET. 

To serve in such a difference. Wliat devil was 't 

That tlius hath cozened you at hoodman-blind ? ■ 

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, 

Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, 

Or but a sickly part of one true sense 80 

Could not so mope. 

shame ! where is thy blush ? Rebellious hell, 

If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones. 

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax. 

And melt in her own fire : proclaim no shame 85 

When the compulsive ardor gives the charge. 

Since frost itself as actively doth burn 

And reason panders will. 

Queen. Hamlet, spea.k no more : 

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul ; 
And there I see such black and grained spots 90 

As will not leave their tinct. 

Ham. Nay, but to live 

Stewed in corruption, — 

Queen. 0, speak to me no more ; 

These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears ; 95 

No more, sweet Hamlet ! 

Ham. A murderer and a villain ; 

A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 
Of your precedent lord ; a vice of kings ; 
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, 
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, lOO 

And put it in his pocket ! 

Queen. No more ! 

Ham. A king of shreds and patches, — 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 85 



Enter Ghost. 

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, 

You heavenly guards ! What woukl your gracious figure ? 

Queen. Alas, he 's mad ! 105 

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, 
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by 
The important acting of your dread command ? 0, say ! 

Ghost. Do not forget : this visitation 110 

Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. 
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits : 
0, step between her and her fighting soul : 
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works : 
Speak to her, Hamlet. 115 

Ham. How is it with you, lady ? 

Queen. Alas, how is 't with you, 
That you do bend your eye on vacancy 
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse ? 
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep ; 
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, 120 

Your bedded hair, like life in excrements. 
Starts up, and stands an end. gentle son, 
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper 
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look ? 

Ham. On him, on him ! Look you, how pale he 
glares ! 125 

His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, 
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me ; 
Lest with this piteous action you convert 
My stern effects : then what I have to do 
Will want true color ; tears perchance for blood. 1.30 

Queen. To whom do you speak this ? 



86 HAMLET. 

Ham. Do you see nothing there ? 

Queen. Nothing at all ; yet all that is I see. 

Ham. Nor did you nothing hear ? 

Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. 

Ham. Why, look you there ! look, how it steals away ! 
My father, in his habit as he lived ! 135 

Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal ! 

\^Exit Ghost. 

Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain : 
This bodiless creation ecstasy 
Is very cunning in. 

Ham. Ecstasy ! 

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, 140 

And makes as healthful music : it is not madness 
That I have uttered : bring me to the test. 
And I the matter will re-word ; which madness 
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace. 
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, 145 

That not your trespass, but my madness speaks : 
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, 
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within. 
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven ; 
Repent what 's past ; avoid what is to come ; 150 

And do not spread the compost on the weeds. 
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue; 
For in the fatness of these pursy times 
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg. 
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. 155 

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. 

Ham. 0,. throw away the worser part of it, 
And live the purer Avith the other half. 
Good night : but go not to mine uncle's bed ; 



ACT HI. SCENE IV. 87 

Assume a virtue, if you have it not. 160 

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, 

Of habits devil, is angel yet in this. 

That to the use of actions fair and good 

He likewise gives a frock or livery, 

That aptly is put on. — 165 

Once more, good night : 

And when you are desirous to be blessed, 

I '11 blessing beg of you. For this same lord, 

\_Pointing to Polonius. 
I do repent : but heaven hath pleased it so. 
To punish me with this and this with me. 
That I must be their scourge and minister. 175 

I Avill bestow him, and will answer well 
The death I gave him. So, again, good night. 
I must be cruel, only to be kind : 
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. 
One word more, good lady. 180 

Queen. What shall I do ? 

Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do : 
Let the bloat king, for a pair of reechy kisses. 
Make you to ravel all this matter out, 
That I essentially am not in madness. 
But mad in craft. 'T were good you let him know ; 
For who, that 's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, 
"Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, 190 

Such dear concernings hide ? who would do so ? 
No, in despite of sense and secrecy. 
Unpeg the basket on the house's top. 
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, 
To' try conclusions, in the basket creep, 195 

And break your own neck down. 



88 HAMLET. 

Queen. Be tliou assured, if words be made of breath, 
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe 
What thou hast said to nie. 

Ham. I must to England ; you know that ? 200 

Qrieen. Alack, 

I had forgot : 't is so concluded on. 

Ham. There 's letters sealed : and my two school- 
fellows. 
Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged, 
They bear the mandate ; they must sweep my way, 
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work ; 205 

For 't is the sport to have the enginer 
Hoist with his own petar : and 't shall go hard 
But I will delve one yard below their mines, 
And blow them at the moon : 0, 't is most sweet, 
When in one line two crafts directly meet. 210 

This man shall set me packing : 
I '11 lug the guts into the neighbor room. 
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor 
Is now most still, most secret and most grave, 
Who was in life a foolish prating knave. 215 

Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. 
Good night, mother. 

\_Exeunt severally ; Hamlet dragging in Polonius. 

ACT IV. 

Scene I. A room in the castle. 

Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and G-uildenstern. 

King. There 's matter in these sighs ; these profound 
heaves 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 89 

You must translate : 't is fit we iinderstaiul them. 
Where is your son ? 

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. 

\_E.veinit RoHencnintz and Guildenstern. 
Ah, my good lord, Avhat have I seen to-night ! 5 

Kiyig. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? 

Queen. Mad as the sea and wind, when both con- 
tend 
Which is the mightier : in his lawless fit, 
Behind the arras hearing something stir, 
Whips out his rapier, cries, ' A rat, a rat ! ' 10 

And, in this brainish apprehension, kills 
The unseen good old man. 

King. heavy deed ! 

It had been so with us, had we been there : 
His liberty is full of threats to all ; 

To you yourself, to us, to every one. 15 

Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered ? 
It will be laid to us, whose providence 
Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunf, 
This mad young man : but so much was our love. 
We would not understand what was most fit ; 20 

But, like the oAvner of a foul disease. 
To keep it from divulging, let it feed 
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone ? 

Queen. To draw apart the body he hath killed : 
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore 25 

Among a mineral of metals base, 
ShoAvs itself pure ; he weeps for what is done. 

King. Gertrude, come away ! 
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch. 
But we will ship him hence : and this vile deed 30 



90 HAMLET. 

We must, with all our majesty and skill, 

Both countenance and excuse. Ho, G-uildenstern ! 

Re-enter Eosencrantz a)id Guildenstern. 

Friends both, go join you with some further aid : 
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain. 
And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him : 35 
Go seek him out ; speak fair, and bring the body 
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. 

[Exeunt Bosencrantz and Guildenstem. 
Come, Gertrude, we '11 call up our wisest friends ; 
And let them know, both what we mean to do. 
And what 's untimely done. So, haply, slander, — 40 
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter. 
As level as the cannon to his blank. 
Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name. 
And hit the woundless air. 0, come away ! 
My soul is full of discord and dismay. 45 

[^Exeunt. 

Scene II. Another room in the castle. 

Enter Hamlet. 

Ham. Safely stowed. 

[ Within'] Hamlet ! Lord Hamlet ! 



Guil. 

Ham. What noise ? who calls on Hamlet ? 0, here 
they come. 

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead 
body ? 6 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 91 

Ham. Compounded it Avith dust, whereto 't is kin. 

llos. Tell us where 't is, that we may take it thence 
And bear it to the chapel. 

Ham. Do not believe it. 

Ros. Believe what ? 10 

Ham. That I can keep your counsel and not mine 
own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what repli- 
cation should be made by the son of a king ? 

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord ? 15 

Ham. Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, 
his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the 
king best service in the end : he keeps them, like an ape 
doth nuts, in the corner of his jaw ; first mouthed, to be 
last swallowed : when he needs what j^ou have gleaned, 
it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry 
again. 23 

Ros. I understand you not, my lord. 

Ham. I am glad of it : a knavish speech sleeps in a 
foolish ear. 26 

Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, 
and go with us to the king. 

Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not 
with the body. The king is a thing — 30 

Guil. A thing, my lord ! 

Ham. Of nothing : bring me to him. Hide fox, and 
all after. lExeunt. 

Scene III. Another room in the castle. 

Enter King, attended. 

King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. 
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose ! 



92 HAMLET. 

Yet must not we put the strong law on him : 

He 's loved of the distracted multitude, 

Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes : 5 

And where 't is so, the offender's scourge is weighed, 

But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, 

This sudden sending him away must seem 

Deliberate pause : diseases desperate grown 

By desperate appliance are relieved, 10 

Or not at all. 

Enter Rosencrantz. 

How now ! what hath befallen ? 
Bos. Wliere the dead body is bestowed, my lord, 
We cannot get from him. 

King. But where is he ? 

Hos. Without, my lord ; guarded, to know your 

pleasure. 
King. Bring him before us. 15 

Mos. Ho, Guildenstern ! bring in my lord. 

Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern. 

King. Now, Hamlet, where 's Polonius ? 

Ham. At supper. 

King. At supper ! where ? 19 

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a 
certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. 
Your worm is your only emperor for diet : we fat all 
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots : 
your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable ser- 
vice, two dishes, but to one table : that 's the end. 26 

King. Alas, alas ! 

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat 
of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. 



ACT IV. SCENE III. 93 

King. "What dost thou mean by this ? 31 

Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a 
progress through the guts of a beggar. 

King. Where is Polonius ? 34 

Ham. In heaven ; send thither to see : if yonr messen- 
ger find him not there, seek him i' the other place your- 
self. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, 
you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the 
lobby. 

King. Go seek him there. 40 

[Tb some Attendants. 

Ham. He will stay till ye come. 

l^Exeunt Attendants. 

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, — 
Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve 
For tliat which thou hast done, — must send thee hence 
With fiery quickness : therefore prepare thyself ; 45 

The bark is ready, and the wind at help. 
The associates tend, and everything is bent 
For England. 

Ham. For England ! 

King. Ay, Hamlet. 

Ham. Good. 

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. 

Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. But, come ; for 
England ! Farewell, dear mother. 51 

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. 

Ham. My mother : father and mother is man and wife ; 
man and wife is one flesh ; and so, my mother. Come, 
for England ! [Exit. 

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed 
aboard ; 56 



94 HAMLET. 

Delay it not ; I '11 have him hence to-night 
Away ! for every thing is sealed and done 
That else leans on the affair : pray you, make haste. 

\^Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught — 60 

As my great power thereof may give thee sense, 
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red 
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe 
Pays homage to us — thou may st not coldly set 
Our sovereign process ; which imports at full, 65 

By letters conjuring to that effect. 
The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England ; 
For like the hectic in my blood he rages. 
And thou must cure me : till I know 't is done, 
Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. 70 

[Exit. 
Scene IV. A plain in DenmarJc. 

Enter Eortinbras, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching. 

For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king ; 
Tell him that, by his license, Fortinbras 
Craves the conveyance of a promised march 
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. 
If that his majesty would aught with us. 
We shall express our duty in his eye ; 
And let him know so. 

Cap. I will do 't, my lord. 

For. Go softly on. [_Exeunt Fortinbras and Soldiers. 

Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, a7id others. 

Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these ? 

Cap. They are of Norway, sir. lo 

Ham. How purposed, sir, I pray you ? 



ACT IV. SCENE IV. 95 

Cap. Against some part of Poland. 

Ham. Who commands them, sir ? 

Caj). The nephew to okl Norway, Fortinbras. 

Ham. Goes it against the main of Pohmd, sir, 15 

Or for some frontier ? 

Ca}). Truly to speak, and with no addition. 
We go to gain a little patch of ground 
That hath in it no profit but the name. 
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it ; 20 

Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole 
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. 

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. 

Cap. Yes, it is already garrisoned. 

Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats 
Will not debate the question of this straw : 26 

This .is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, 
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without 
Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir. 

CajJ. God be wi' you, sir. \^Exit. 

Ros. Will 't please you go, my lord ? 31 

Ham. I '11 be with you straight. Go a little before. 

[^Exeunt all except Hamlet. 
How all occasions do inform against me. 
And spur my dull revenge ! What is a man, 
If his chief good and market of his time 
Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more. 35 

Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before and after, gave ns not 
That capability and god-like reason 
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be 
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple 40 

Of thinking too precisely on the event, 



96 HAMLET. 

A thouglit wMch, quartered, hath but one part wisdom 

And ever three parts coward, I do not know 

Why yet I live to say ' This thing 's to do ; ' 

Sith I have cause and will and strength and means 45 

To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me : 

Witness this army of such mass and charge 

Led by a delicate and tender prince, 

Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed 

Makes mouths at the invisible event, 50 

Exposing what is mortal and unsure 

To all that fortune, death and danger dare, 

Even for an egg-shell. E-ightly to be great 

Is not to stir without great argument, 

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw 55 

When honor 's at the stake. How stand I then, 

That have a father killed, a mother stained, 

Excitements of my reason and my blood. 

And let all sleep, while, to my shame, I see 

The imminent death of twenty thousand men, 60 

That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, 

Go to their graves like beds, tight for a plot 

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause. 

Which is not tomb enough and continent 

To hide the slain ? 0, from this time forth, 65 

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth ! 

[Exit 

Scene V. Elsinore. A room in the castle. 

Enter Queen, Horatio, and a Gentleman. 

Queen. I will not speak with her. 
Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract : 
Her mood will needs be pitied. 



ACT IV. SCENE V. 97 

Queen. What wuukl she have ? 

Gent. She speaks much of her father ; says she hears 
There 's tricks i' the world ; and hems, and beats her 
heart ; 5 

Spurns enviously at straws ; speaks things in doubt, 
That carry but half sense : her speech is nothing. 
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move 
The hearers to collection ; they aim at it, 
And botch the words u.p fit to their own thoughts ; 10 
Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them, 
Indeed would make one think there might be thought. 
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. 

Hor. 'T were good she were spoken with ; for she may 
strew 
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. 15 

Queen. Let her come in. \^Exit Horatio. 

To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is. 
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss : 
So full of artless jealousy is guilt, 
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. 20 

Re-enter Hokatio, loith Ophelia. 

Opli. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark ? 

Queen. How now, Ophelia ! 

Opii. [^Sings'] How should I your true love know 

From another one ? 
By his cockle hat and staff, 25 

And his sandal shoon. 
Queen. Alas, sweet lady, w^hat imports this song ? 
Oph. Say you ? nay, pray you, mark. 
[/Smgrs] He is dead and gone, lady, 

He is dead and gone ; 30 

H 



98 HAMLET. 

At his head a grass-green turf, 
At his heels a stone. 
Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia, — 
Oph. Pray you, mark. 
[/Sm^s] White his shroud as the mountain snow, — 35 

Enter King, 

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord. 
Oph. losings'] Larded with sweet flowers ; 
Which bewept to the grave did go 
With true-love showers. 
King. How do you, pretty lady ? 40 

Oph. Well, God "ild you ! They say the owl was a 
baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but 
know not what we may be. God be at your table ! 

King. Conceit upon her father. 45 

Oph. Pray you, let 's have no words of this ; but when 
they ask you what it means, say you this : 
[^jSirigs'] To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, 
All in the morning betime. 
And I a maid at your window, 50 

To be your Valentine. 
King. How long hath she been thus ? 67 

Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient : 
but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay 
him i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it : 
and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my 
coach ! Good night, ladies ; good night, sweet ladies ; 
good night, good night. \^Exit. 74 

King. Pollow her close ; give her good watch, I pray 
you. [_Exit Horatio. 

0, this is the poison of deep grief ; it springs 



ACT IV. SCENE V. 99 

All from her father's death. O Gertnxde, Gertrude, 

When sorrows come, they come not single spies. 

But in battalions. First, her father slain : 

Next, your son gone ; and he most violent author 80 

Of his own just remove : the people muddied. 

Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and Avhispers, 

For good Polonius' death ; and we have done but greenly. 

In hugger-mugger to inter him : poor Ophelia 

Divided from herself and her fair judgement, 85 

Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts : 

Last, and as much containing as all these. 

Her brother is in secret come from France ; 

Feeds on his Avonder, keeps himself in clouds, 

And wants not buzzers to infect his ear 90 

With pestilent speeches of his father's death ; 

"NATierein necessity, of matter beggared, 

Will nothing stick our person to arraign 

In ear and ear. my dear Gertrude, this. 

Like to a murdering-piece, in many places 95 

Gives me superfluous death. \_A noise within. 

Queen. Alack, what noise is this ? 

King. Where are my Switzers ? Let them guard the 
door. 

Enter another Gentleman. 

What is the matter ? 

Gent. Save yourself, my lord : 

The ocean, overpeering of his list, 

Eats not the fiats with more impetuous haste 100 

Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, 
O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord ; 
And, as the world were now but to begin. 



100 HAMLET, 

Antiquity forgot, custom not known, 

The ratifiers and props of every word, 105 

They cry •' Choose we : Laertes shall be king : ' 

Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds : 

'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king ! ' 

Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry ! 
0, this is counter, you false Danish dogs ! no 

King. The doors are broke. [JVbtse tvithin. 

Enter IjAeb,tes, armed; Danes following. 

Laer. Where is this king ? Sirs, stand you all with- 
out. 

Varies. No, let 's come in. 

Laer. I pray you, give me leave. 

Danes. We will, we will. [ They retire without the door. 

Laer. I thank you : keep the door. thou vile king, 
Give me my father ! 116 

Queen. • Calmly, good Laertes. 

Jjaer. That drop of blood that 's calm proclaims me 
bastard. 
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot 
Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow 
Of my true mother. 120 

King. What is the cause, Laertes, 

That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ? 
Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person : 
There 's such divinity doth hedge a king. 
That treason can but peep to what it would, 
Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes, 125 

Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude. 
Speak, man. 

Laer. Where is my father ? 



ACT IV. SCENE V. 101 

King. Dead. 

Queen. But not by him. 

King. Let liim demand Lis iill. 

Laer. How came he dead ? I '11 not be juggled with : 
To hell, allegiance ! vows, to the blackest devil ! 131 

Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit ! 
I dare damnation. To this point I stand, 
That both the worlds I give to negligence, 
Let come what comes ; only I '11 be revenged 135 

Most throughly for my father. 

King. Who shall stay you ? 

Laer. My Avill, not all the world : 
And for my means, I '11 husband them so well, 
They shall go far Avith little. 

King. Good Laertes, 

If you desire to know the certainty 140 

Of your dear father's death, is 't writ in your revenge, 
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe, 
Winner and loser ? 

Laer. None but his enemies. 

King. Will you know them then ? 

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I '11 ope my arms ; 
And like the kind life-rendering pelican, 146 

Repast them with my blood. 

King. ^^^by? now you speak 

Like a good child and a true gentleman. 
That I am guiltless of your father's death. 
And am most sensibly in grief for it, 150 

It shall as level to your judgement pierce 
As day does to your eye. 

Danes. [ Within'] Let her come in. 

Laer. How now ! what noise is that ? 



102 HAMLET. 

Re-enter Ophelia. 

heat, dry up my brains ! tears seven times salt, 

Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye ! 155 

By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight, 

Till our scale turn the beam. rose of May ! 

Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia ! 

heavens ! is 't possible, a young maid's wits 

Should be as mortal as an old man's life ? 160 

Nature is fine in love, and where 't is fine, 

It sends some precious instance of itself 

After the thing it loves. 

Opli. \_Sings] 

They bore him barefaced on the bier ; 
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny ; 165 

And in his grave rained many a tear : — 
Fare you well, my dove ! 

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, 
It could not move thus. 

Opli. \_Sings\ You must sing a-down a-down, 170 

An you call him a-down-a. 
0, how the wheel becomes it ! It is the false steward, 
that stole his master's daughter. 

Laer. This nothing 's more than matter. 

Oph. There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance ; pray, 
love, remember : and there is pansies, that 's for thoughts. 

Laer. A document in madness, thoughts and remem- 
brance fitted. 179 

Oph. There 's fennel for you, and columbines : there 's 
rue for you ; and here 's some for me : we may call it 
herb of grace o' Sundays : 0, you must wear your rue 
with a difference. There 's a daisy : I would give you 



ACT IV. SCENE V. 103 

some violets, but they withered all when my father died : 
they say he made a good end, — 18G 

[>S'('?(f)'s.] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy. 
Laer. Thoiight and affliction, passion, hell itself, 
She turns to favor and to prettiness. 

Oj^h. [Sings'] And will he not come again ? 190 

And will he not come again ? 
No, no, he is dead : 
Go to thy death-bed : 
He never will come again. 

His beard was as white as snow, 195 

All flaxen was his poll : 
He is gone, he is gone, 
And we cast away moan : 
God ha' mercy on his soul ! 
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye. 

[Exit. 200 
Laer. Do you see this, God ? 
King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, 
Or you deny me right. Go but apart, 
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, 
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me : 205 
If by direct or by collateral hand 
They find us touched, we will our kingdom give, 
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, 
To you in satisfaction ; but if not, 

Be you content to lend your patience to us, 2io 

And we shall jointly labor with your soul 
To give it due content. 

Laer. Let this be so ; 

His means of death, his obscure funeral — 



104 HAMLET. 

No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, 
No noble rite nor formal ostentation — 215 

Cry to be heard, as 't were from heaven to earth. 
That I must call 't in question. 

King. So you shall ; 

And where the offence is let the great axe fall. 
I pray you, go with me. \^Exeunt. 

Scene VI. Another room in the castle. 

Enter Horatio and a Servant. 

Ilor. What are they that would speak with me ? 
Sej-v. Sailors, sir : they say they have letters for you, 
Hor. Let them come in. \^Exit Servant. 

I do not know from what part of the world 
I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. 5 

Enter Sailors. 

First Sail. God bless you, sir. 

Hor. Let him bless thee too. 

First Sail. He shall, sir, an 't please him. There 's 
a letter for you, sir : it comes from the ambassador that 
was bound for England ; if your name be Horatio, as I 
am let to know it is. il 

Hor. \_Reacls'] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have over- 
looked this, give these fellows some means to the king : 
they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old 
at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us 
chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a 
compelled valor, and in the grapple I boarded them : on 
the instant they got clear of our ship ; so I alone became 
their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of 



ACT IV. SCENE VII. 105 

mercy: but they knew what they did ; I am to do a good 
turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have 
sent ; and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou 
wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear 
will make thee dumb ; yet are they much too light for 
the bore of the matter. These good fellows Avill bring 
thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Cxuildenstern hold 
their course for England: of them I have much to tell 
thee. Farewell. so 

' He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.' 
Come, I will make you way for these your letters ; 
And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me 
To him from whom you brought them. \^Exeunt. 

Scene VII. Another room in the castle. 
Enter King and Laertes. 

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal. 
And you must put me in your heart for friend, 
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear. 
That he which hath your noble father slain 
Pursued my life. 5 

Laer. It well appears : but tell me 

Why you proceeded not against these feats, 
So crimeful and so capital in nature, 
As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, 
You mainly were stirred up. 

King. 0, for two special reasons ; 

Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinewed, 10 
But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother 
Lives almost by his looks ; and for myself — 
My virtue or my plague, be it either which — 



106 HAMLET. 

She 's so conjunctive to my life and soul, 

That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, 15 

I could not but by her. The other motive, 

Why to a public count I might not go, 

Is the great love the general gender bear him ; 

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection. 

Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, 20 

Convert his gyves to graces ; so that my arrows. 

Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind. 

Would have reverted to my bow again, 

And not where I had aimed them. 

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost ; 25 

A sister driven into desperate terms. 
Whose worth, if praises may go back again, 
Stood challenger on mount of all the age 
For her perfections : but my revenge will come. 

King. Break not your sleeps for that : you must not 
think 30 

That we are made of stuff so fiat and dull 
That we can let our beard be shook with danger 
And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more : 
I loved your father, and we love ourself ; 
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine — 35 

Enter a Messenger. 

How now ! what news ? 

Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: 

This to your majesty ; this to the queen. 

King. From Hamlet ! who brought them ? 

Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say ; I saw them not : 
They were given me by Claudio ; he received them 40 
Of him that brought them. 



ACT IV. SCENE VII. 107 

King. Laertes, you shall hear them. 

Leave us. \_ExU Messenger. 

[^Reads'] ' High and mighty, You shall know I am set 
naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to 
see your kingly eyes : Avhen I shall, first asking your 
pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and 
more strange return. 

' Hamlet.' 
What should this mean ? Are all the rest come back ? 50 
Or is it some abuse, and no such thing ? 

Laer. Know you the hand ? 

King. 'T is Hamlet's character. 'Naked!' 

And in a postscript here, he says ' alone.' 
Can you advise me ? 

Laer. I 'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come ; 55 
It warms the very sickness in my heart. 
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, 
'Thus didest thou.' 

King. If it be so, Laertes — 

As how should it be so ? how otherwise ? — 
Will you be ruled by me ? 60 

Laer. Ay, my lord ; 

So you will not o'errule me to a peace. 

King. To thine own peace. If he be noAv returned, 
As checking at his voyage, and that he means 
No more to undertake it, I will work him 
To an exploit, now ripe in my device, ' 65 

Under the which he shall not choose but fall : 
And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe. 
But even his mother shall uncharge the practice 
And call it accident. , . 

Laer. My lord, I will be ruled; 






^ 



^**$^ 



-^ 



108 HAMLET. 

The rather, if you coukl devise it so 70 

That I might be the organ. 

King. It falls right. 

You have been talked of since your travel much, 
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality 
Wherein, they say, you shine : your sum of parts 
Did not together pluck such envy from him 75 

As did that one, and that, in my regard. 
Of the unworthiest siege. 

Laer. What part is that, my lord ? 

King. A very riband in the cap of youth. 
Yet needful too ; for youth no less becomes 
The light and careless livery that it wears 80 

Than settled age his sables and his weeds, 
Importing health and graveness. Two months since, 
Here was a gentleman of ISTormandy : — 
I 've seen myself, and served against, the French, 
And they can well on horseback : but this gallant 85 

Had witchcraft in 't ; he grew unto his seat ; 
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse. 
As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured 
With the brave beast : so far he topped my thought. 
That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, 90 

Come short of what he did. 

Lae7: A Norman was 't ? 

King. A Norman. 

Lae7: Upon ]ny life^ Lamond. 

King. The very same. 

Laer. I know him well : he is the brooch indeed 
And gem of all the nation. 95 

King. He made confession of you. 
And gave you such a masterly report 



ACT IV. SCENE VII. 109 

For art aud exercise in your defence 

And for your rapier most especially, 

That he cried out, 't would be a sight indeed, 100 

If one could match you : the scrimers of their nation, 

He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, 

If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his 

Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy 

That he could nothing do but wish and beg 105 

Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him. 

Now, out of this, — 

Laer. What out of this, my lord ? 

Khig. Laertes, was your father dear to you ? 
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, 
A face without a heart ? iio 

Laer. ^^^ij f^sk you this ? 

King. Not that I think you did not love your father ; 
But that I know love is begun by time ; 
And that I see, in passages of proof, 
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. 
There lives within the very flame of love 115 

A kind of Avick or snuff that will abate it ; 
And nothing is at a like goodness still ; 
For goodness, growing to a plurisy, 
Dies in his own too much : that we would do, 
T\"e should do when we would ; for this ' would ' changes 
And hath abatements and delays as many 121 

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; 
And then this ' should ' is like a spendthrift sigh, 
That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer : — 
Hamlet comes back : what would you undertake, 125 

To show yourself your father's son in deed 
More than in words ? 



110 HAMLET. 

Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. 

King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize ; 
Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, 
Will you do this, keep close within your chamber. 130 
Hamlet returned shall know you are come home : 
We '11 put on those shall praise your excellence 
And set a double varnish on the fame 
The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together 
And wager on your heads : he, being remiss, 135 

Most generous and free from all contriving. 
Will not peruse the foils ; so that, with ease, 
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose 
A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice 
Eequite him for your father. 140 

Laer. I will do 't : 

And, for that purpose, I '11 anoint my sword. 
I bought an unction of a mountebank, 
So mortal that, but dip a knife in it. 
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare. 
Collected from all simples that have virtue 145 

Under the moon, can save the thing from death 
That is but scratched withal : I '11 touch my point 
With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly. 
It may be death. 

King. Let 's further think of this ; 

Weigh what convenience both of time and means 150 

May fit us to our shape : if this should fail. 
And that our drift look through our bad performance, 
'T were better not assayed : therefore this project 
Should have a back or second, that might hold, 
If this should blast in proof. Soft ! let me see : 155 

We '11 make a solemn wager on your cunnings : 



ACT IV. SCENE VII. Ill 

I ha't : 

When in your motion you are hot and dry — 

As make your bouts more violent to that end — 

And that he calls for drink, I '11 have prepared him IGO 

A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, 

If he by chance escape your venom ed stuck, 

Our purpose may hold there. 

Enter Queen. 

How now, sweet queen ! 

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel. 
So fast they follow : your sister 's drowned, Laertes. 165 

Laer. Drowned ! 0, where ? 

Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook. 
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ; 
There with fantastic garlands did she come 
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples 170 

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name. 
But our cold maids do dead men's lingers call them : 
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke ; 
When down her weedy trophies and herself 175 

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide ; 
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up : 
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes ; 
As one incapable of her own distress, 
Or like a creature native and indued 180 

Unto that element : but long it could not be 
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, 
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay 
To muddy death. 

Laer. Alas, then, she is drowned ? 



112 HAMLET. 

Queen. Drowned, drowned. 185 

Laej: Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, 
And therefore I forbid my tears : but yet 
It is our trick ; nature her custom hokls. 
Let shame say what it will : when these are gone, 
The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord : 190 

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, 
But that this folly douts it. [Exit. 

King. Let 's follow, Gertrude : 

How much I had to do to calm his rage ! 
Now fear I this will give it start again ; 
Therefore let 's follow. [Exeunt. 195 

ACT V. 

Scene I. A churchyard. 
Enter two Clowns, loith spades, &c. 

First Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that 
wilfully seeks her own salvation ? 

Sec. Clo. I tell thee she is : and therefore make her 
grave straight : the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it 
Christian burial. 5 

First Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned her- 
self in her own defence ? 

Sec. Clo. Why, 't is found so. 

First Clo. It must be ' se offendendo ; ' it cannot be 
else. ¥or here lies the point : if I drown myself wit- 
tingly, it argues an act : and an act hath three branches ; 
it is, to act, to do, to perform : argal, she drowned her- 
self wittingly. 

Sec. Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver, — 15 

First Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; 



ACT r. SCENE I. 113 

good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to tliis 
water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, 
— mark you that; but if the Avater eome to him and 
drown him, he drowns not himself: ai'gal, he that is not 
guilty of liis own death shortens not his own life. 22 

Sec. Clo. But is this laAv ? 

First Clo. Ay, marry, is 't ; erowner's quest law. 25 

Sec. Clo. Will you ha' the truth on 't ? If this had 
not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried 
out o' Christian burial. 

First Clo. Vf[\j, there thou say'st : and the more pity 
that great folk should have countenance in this world 
to drown or hang themselves, more than their even 
Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentle- 
men but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers : they 
hold up Adam's profession. 35 

Sec. Clo. Was he a gentleman ? 

First Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 

Sec. Clo. Why, he had none. 39 

First Clo. What, art a heathen ? How dost thou 
understand the Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam 
digged : ' could he dig without arms ? I '11 put another 
question to thee : if thou answerest me not to the pur- 
pose, confess thyself — 

Sec. Clo. Go to. 45 

First Clo. What is he that builds stronger than either 
the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter ? 

Sec. Clo. The gallows-maker ; for that frame outlives 
a thousand tenants. 50 

First Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith : the gal- 
lows does well ; but how does it well ? it does well to 
those that do ill : now thou dost ill to say the gallows is 



114 HAMLET. 

built stronger than the church : argal, the gallows may 
do well to thee. To 't again, come. 56 

Sec. Clo. ' Who builds stronger than a mason, a ship- 
wright, or a carpenter ? ' 

First Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. 

Sec. Clo. Marry, now I can tell. 60 

First Clo. To 't. 

Sec. Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. 

Enter Hamlet and Horatio, at a distance. 

First Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for 
your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating ; and, 
when you are asked this question next, say 'a grave- 
maker : ' the houses that he makes last till doomsday. 
Go, get thee to Yaughan : fetch me a stoup of liquor. 68 
[i/e ddgs, and sings.^ \^Exit Sec. Clown. 

In youth, when I did love, did love, 

Methought it was very sweet, 70 

To contract, 0, the time, for, ah, my behove, 
0, methought, there was nothing meet. 
Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that 
he sings at grave-making ? 

Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of 
easiness. 76 

Ham. 'T is e'en so : the hand of little employment 
hath the daintier sense. 
First Clo. losings'] 

But age, with his stealing steps, 

Hath clawed me in his clutch, 80 

And hath shipped me intil the land. 
As if I had never been such. 

[ Throius up a skull. 



ACT V. SCENE I. 115 

Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing 
once : how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were 
Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder ! It might 
be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er- 
reaches ; one that would circumvent God, might it not ? 88 

Hor. It might, my lord. 

Ham. Or of a courtier ; which could say * Good mor- 
row, sweet lord ! How dost thou, good lord ? ' This 
might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such- 
a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it ; might it not ? 94 

Hor. Ay, my lord. 95 

Ham. Why, e'en so : and now my Lady Worm's ; 
chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's 
spade : here 's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see 't. 
Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play 
at loggats with 'em ? Mine ache to think on 't. loi 

First Clo. \_Sings] 

A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, 

For and a shrouding sheet : 
0, a pit of clay for to be made 

For such a guest is meet. 105 

\_Throws ujJ another sJcuU. 

Ham. There 's another : why may not that be the 
skull of a lawyer ? Where be his quiddities now, his 
quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks ? why does 
he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the 
sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his 
action of battery ? Hum ! This fellow might be in 's 
time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recog- 
nizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries : 
is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his 
recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt ? Will 



116 HAMLET. 

his voiicliers vouch him no more of his purchases, and 
double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of 
indentures ? The very conveyances of his lands will 
hardly lie in this box ; and must the inheritor himself 
have no more, ha ? 121 

Hor. ISTot a jot more, my lord. 

Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins ? 

Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. 

Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out as- 
surance in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose 
grave 's this, sirrah ? 127 

First Clo. Mine, sir. 

[xStwry.s] 0, a pit of clay for to be made 

For such a guest is meet. 130 

Ham. I think it be thine, indeed ; for thou liest 
in't. 

First Clo. You lie out on 't, sir, and therefore it is 
not yours : for my part, I do not lie in 't, and yet it is 
mine. 135 

Ham. Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is 
thine : 't is for the dead, not for the quick ; therefore 
thou liest. 

First Clo. 'T is a quick lie, sir ; 't will away again, from 
me to you. 140 

Ham. What man dost thou dig it for ? 

First Clo. For no man, sir. 

Ham. What woman, then ? 

First Clo. For none, neither. 

Ham. Who is to be buried in 't ? 145 

First Clo. One that was a woman, sir ; but, rest her 
soul, she 's dead. 

Ham. How absolute the knave is ! We must speak 



ACT V. SCENE I. 117 

by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, 
Horatio, these three years I liave taken a note of it; 
the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant 
comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe. 
How long hast thou been a grave-maker ? 154 

First CIo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to 't that 
day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. 157 

Ham. How long is that since ? 

First Clo. Cannot you tell that ? Every fool can tell 
that : it was the very day that young Hamlet was born ; 
he that is mad, and sent into England. 162 

Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England ? 

First Clo. Why, because he was mad : he shall recover 
his wits there ; or, if he do not, it 's no great matter 
there. 167 

Ham. ^YhJ ? 

First Clo. 'T will not be seen in him there ; there the 
men are as mad as he. 170 

Ham. How came he mad ? 

First Clo. Very strangely, they say. 

Ham. How strangely ? 

First Clo. Eaith, e'en with losing his wits. 

Ham. Upon what ground ? 175 

First Clo. Why, here in Denmark : I have been sex- 
ton here, man and boy, thirty years. 

Ham. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he 
rot ? 179 

First Clo. V faith, if he be not rotten before he die 
— as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will 
scarce hold the laying in — he will last you some eight 
year or nine year : a tanner will last you nine year. 

Ham. Why he more than another ? 185 



118 HAMLET. 

First Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his 
trade, that he will keep out water a great while ; and 
your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. 
Here 's a skull now ; this skull has lain in the earth three 
and twenty years. 191 

Ham. Whose was it ? 

First Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was : whose do 
you think it was ? 

Ham. Nay, I know not. 195 

First Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue : a' 
poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same 
skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester. 

Ham. This ? 200 

First Clo. E'en that. 

Ham. Let me see. \^Takes the sJcull.^ Alas, poor 
Yorick ! I knew him, Horatio : a fellow of infinite jest, 
of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back 
a thousand times ; and now, how abhorred in my imagina- 
tion it is ! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that 
I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes 
now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merri- 
ment, that were wont to set the table on a roar ? Not 
one now, to mock your own grinning, — quite chap-fallen ? 
Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her 
paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come ; make her 
laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing. 216 

Hor. What 's that, my lord ? 

Ha7n. Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fash- 
ion i' the earth ? 

Ho7\ E'en so. 220 

Ham. And smelt so ? pah ! [Pwfe down the skull. 

Hor. E'en so, my lord. 



ACT V. SCENE I. 119 

Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! 
Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alex- 
ander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole ? 226 
Hor. 'T were to consider too curiously, to consider so. 
Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither 
with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it : as thus : 
Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander return- 
eth into dust ; the dust is earth ; of earth we make loam ; 
and why of that loam, whereto he Avas converted, might 
they not stop a beer-barrel ? 235 
Imperious CtBsar, dead and turned to clay, 
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away : 
0, that that earth, which kept the world in awe. 
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! 
But soft ; but soft ; aside : here comes the king. 240 

Enter Priests, &c. in procession ; the Corpse of Ophelia, 
Laeetes and Mourners following ; King, Queen, their 
trains, &c. 

The queen, the courtiers : who is this they follow ? 
And with such maimed rites ? This doth betoken 
The corse they follow did with desperate hand 
Fordo, its own life: 'twas of some estate. 
Couch we awhile, and mark. 245 

\_Retiring with Horatio. 

Laer. What ceremony else ? 

Ham. That is Laertes, 

A very noble youth : mark. 

Laer. What ceremony else ? 

First Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarged 
As we have warrantise : her death was doubtful ; 250 

And, but that great command o'ersways the order, 



120 HAMLET. 

She should in ground unsanctified have lodged 
Till the last trumpet ; for charitable prayers, 
Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her : 
Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, 255 

Her maiden strewments and the bringing home 
Of bell and burial. 

Laer. Must there no more be done ? 

Fi7'st Priest. No more be done : 

We should profane the service of the dead 
To sing a requiem and such rest to her 260 

As to peace-parted souls. 

Laer. Lay her i' the earth : 

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
May violets spring ! I tell thee, churlish priest, 
A ministering angel shall my sister be. 
When thou liest howling. 265 

Ham. What, the fair Ophelia ! 

Queen. Sweets to the sweet : farewell ! 

[^Scattering flowers. 
I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife ; 
I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, 
And not have strewed thy grave. 

Laer. 0, treble woe 

Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, 270 

Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense 
Deprived thee of ! Hold off the earth awhile. 
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms : 

\_Lea.23s into the grave. 
Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead, 
Till of this flat a mountain you have made, 275 

To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head 
Of blue Olympus. 



ACT V. SCENE I. 121 

Ham. \^A(lva)iri)i(/'\ Wliat is he wliose g'rief 
Bears such an emphasis, — whose phrase of sorrow 
Conjures tlie wandering stars, and makes them stand 
Like Avonder-wounded hearers ? This is I, 280 

Hamlet the Dane. l^Lecqjs into the grave. 

Laer. The devil take thy soul ! 

\_Graiypling ivitli him. 

Ham. Thou pray'st not well. 
I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat ; 
For, though I am not splenitive and rash, 
Yet have I something in me dangerous, 285 

Which let thy Aviseness fear ; hold off thy hand. 

King. Pluck them asunder. 

Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet! 

All. Gentlemen, — 

Hor. Good my lord, be quiet. 

[The Attendants part them, and they come oiU of 
the grave. 

Ham. AVhy, I Avill fight with him upon this theme 
Until my eyelids will no longer wag. 290 

Queen. my son, what theme ? 

Ham. I loved Ophelia : forty thousand brothers 
Could not, with all their quantity of love, 
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her ? 

King. 0, he is mad, Laertes. 

Queen. For love of God, forbear him. 

Ham. 'Swounds, show me what thou 'It do : 
Woo't weep, woo't tight, woo't fast, woo't tear thy- 
self? 
Woo't drink up eisel, — eat a crocodile ? 
I '11 do 't. Dost thou come here to whine, — 300 

To outface me with leaping in her grave ? 



12^ HAMLET. 

Be buried quick with her, and so will I : 

And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw 

Millions of acres on us, till our ground, 

Singeing his pate against the burning zone, 305 

Make Ossa like a wart ! Nay, an thou 'It mouth, 

I '11 rant as well as thou. 

Queen. This is mere madness : 

And thus awhile the fit will work on him ; 
Anon, as patient as the female dove. 
When that her golden couplets are disclosed, 310 

His silence will sit drooping. 

Ham. Hear you, sir ; 

What is the reason that you use me thus ? 
I loved you ever : but it is no matter ; 
Let Hercules himself do what he may. 
The cat will mew and dog will have his day. [_Exit. 315 

King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. 

\^Exit Horatio. 
[ To Laertes'] Strengthen your patience in our last night's 

speech ; 
We '11 pat the matter to the present push. 
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. 
This grave shall have a living monument : 320 

An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ; 
Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [^Exeunt. 

Scene II. A hall in the castle. 

Enter Hamlet and Horatio. 

Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the 
other ; 
You do remember all the circumstance ? 



ACT V. SCENE II. 123 

Ilor. Remember it, my lord ! 

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting. 
That would not let me sleep : methought I lay 5 

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Kashly, 
And praised be rashness for it, let ns know. 
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 
When our deep plots do pall : and that should teach us 
There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 10 

Eough-hew them how we will, — 

Hor. That is most certain. 

Ham. Up from my cabin. 
My sea-gown scarfed about me, in the dark 
Groped I to find out them ; had my desire, 
Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew 15 

To mine oavu room again ; making so bold, 
My fears forgetting manners, to unseal 
Their grand commission ; where I found, Horatio, — 
royal knavery ! — an exact command, 
Larded with many several sorts of reasons 20 

Importing Denmark's health and England's too, 
With, ho ! such bugs and goblins in my life, 
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, 
No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, 
My head should be struck off. 25 

Hor. Is 't possible ? 

Ham. Here's the commission: read it at more lei- 
sure. 
But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed ? 

Hor. I beseech you. 

Ham. Being thus be-netted round with villanies, — 
Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, 30 

They had begun the play — I sat me down, 



124 HAMLET. 

Devised a new commission, wrote it fair : 

I once did hold it, as our statists do, 

A baseness to write fair and labored mucli 

How to forget that learning, but, sir, now 35 

It did me yeoman's service : wilt tliou know 

The effect of what I wrote ? 

Hot. Ay, good my lord. 

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, 
As England was his faithful tributary, 
As love between them like the palm might flourish, 40 
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear 
And stand a comma 'tween their amities. 
And many such-like * As 'es of great charge, 
That, on the view and knowing of these contents. 
Without debatement further, more or less, 45 

He should the bearers put to sudden death, 
Not shriving time allowed. 

Hot. How was this sealed ? 

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. 
I had my father's signet in my purse, 
Which was the model of that Danish seal ; 50 

Folded the writ up in form of the other. 
Subscribed it, gave 't the impression, placed it safely. 
The changeling never known. Now, the next day 
Was our sea-fight ; and what to this was sequent 
Thou know'st already. 55 

Hor. So Guilden stern and Eosencrantz go to 't. 

Ha^n. Why, man, they did make love to this employ- 
ment; 
They are not near my conscience ; their defeat 
Does by their own insinuation grow : 
'T is dangerous when the baser nature comes 60 



ACT V. SCENE II. 125 

Between the pass and fell incensed points 
Of mighty opposites. 

Hor. Why, what a king is this ! 

Ham. Does it not, thiuks't thee, stand me now upon — 
He that hath killed my king and stained my mother. 
Popped in between the election and my hopes, 65 

Thrown out his angle for my proper life. 
And with such cozenage — is't not perfect conscience, 
To quit him with this arm ; and is 't not to be damned, 
To let this canker of our nature come 
In further evil ? 70 

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from Eng- 
land 
What is the issue of the business there. 

Ham. It will be short : the interim is mine ; 
And a man's life 's no more than to say ' One.' 
But I am very sorry, good Horatio, 75 

That to Laertes I forgot myself ; 
For, by the image of my cause, I see 
The portraiture of his : I '11 court his favors : 
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me 
Into a towering passion. so 

Hor. Peace ! who comes here ? 

Enter Osrtc. 

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Den- 
mark. 

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this 
water-fly ? 

Hor. ISTo, my good lord. 85 

Ham. Thy state is the more gracious ; for 't is a vice 
to know him. He hath much land, and fertile : let a 



126 HAMLET. 

beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the 
king's mess : 't is a chough ; but, as I say, spacious in 
the possession of dirt. 90 

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordshijp were at leisure, I 
should impart a thing to you from his majesty. 

Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. 
Put your bonnet to his right use ; 't is for the head. 96 

Osr. I thank your lordship, it is very hot. 

Ham. No, believe me, 't is very cold ; the wind is 
northerly. 

Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. 100 

Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for 
my complexion. 

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord ; it is very sultry, — as 
'twere, — I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty 
bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager 
on your head : sir, this is the matter, — 106 

Ham. I beseech you, remember — 

\_Hamlet moves Mm to put on his hat. 

Osr. Nay, good my lord ; for mine ease, in good faith. 
Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes ; believe me, an 
absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of 
very soft society and great showing: indeed, to speak 
feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for 
you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentle- 
man would see. 116 

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you ; 
though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy 
the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in 
respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, 
I take him to be a soul of great article ; and his infusion 
of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of 



ACT V. SCENE 11. 127 

him, his semblable is liis mirror; and who else wouhl 
trace him, his umbrage, nothing more. 125 

Osi: Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. 

Havi. The concernancy, sir ? Why do we wrap the 
gentleman in our more rawer breath ? 

Os7\ Sir ? 130 

Hor. Is 't not possible to understand in another 
tongue ? You will do 't, sir, really. 

Hain. What imports the nomination of this gentle- 
man? 

Osr. Of Laertes ? 135 

Hor. His purse is empty already ; all 's golden words 
are spent. 

IIa7n. Of him, sir. 

Osr. I know you are not ignorant — 

Ham. I would you did, sir ; yet, in faith, if you did, 
it would not much approve me. Well, sir ? 141 

Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes 
is — 

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare 
with him in excellence ; but, to know a man well, were 
to know himself. 147 

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon ; but in the imputa- 
tion laid on him by them, in his meed he 's unfel- 
lowed. 150 

Ham. What 's his weapon ? 

Osr. Rapier and dagger. 

Ham. That 's two of his weapons : but, well. 

Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Bar- 
bary horses : against the which he has imponed, as I 
take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, 
as girdle, hangers, and so : three of the carriages, in faith, 



128 HAMLET. 

are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most 
delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit. 160 

Ham. What call you the carriages ? 

Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere 
you had done. 

Os7\ The carriages, sir, are the hangers. 

Ham. The phrase would be more german to the mat- 
ter, if we could carry cannon by our sides : I would it 
might be hangers till then. But, on : six Barbary horses 
against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal- 
conceited carriages ; that 's the French bet against the 
Danish. Why is this ' imponed,' as you call it ? 171 

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes 
between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three 
hits : he hath laid on twelve for nine ; and it would come 
to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the 
answer. 176 

Ham. How if I answer ' no ' ? 

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person 
in trial. 

Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall : if it please 
his majesty, 't is the breathing time of day with me; let 
the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king 
hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can; if not, I 
will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. 185 

Osr. Shall I re-deliver you e'en so ? 

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your 
nature will. 

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. 

Ham. Yours, yours. \_Exit Osric.'\ He does well to 
commend it himself ; there are no tongues else for 's 
turn. 192 



ACT V. SCENE 11. 129 

Ilor. This lapwing runs away witli tlie shell on his 
head. 

Ham. He did comply with his dug, before he sucked 
it. Thus has he — and many more of the same breed 
that I know the drossy age dotes on — only got the tune 
of the time and the outward habit of encounter ; a kind 
of yesty collection, which carries them through and 
through the most fond and winnoAved opinions ; and do 
but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. 202 

Enter a Lord. 

Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you 
by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend 
him in the hall : he sends to know if your pleasure hold 
to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time. 

Ham. I am constant to my purposes ; they follow the 
king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; 
now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now. 

Loixl. The king and queen and all are coming down. 

Hain. In happy time. 214 

Lord. The Queen desires you to use some gentle 
entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play. 217 

Ham. She well instructs me. \_Exit Lord. 

Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. 

Ham. I do not think so : since he went into France, 
I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the 
odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all 's here 
about my heart : but it is no matter. 223 

Hor. Nay, good my lord, — 

Ham. It is but foolery ; but it is such a kind of gain- 
giving as would perhaps trouble a woman. 226 



130 HAMLET. 

Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it : I will 
forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit. 229 

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury : there 's a special 
providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is 
not to come ; if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be 
not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all : since no 
man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave 
betimes ? 235 

Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric and Attend- 
ants with foils, &c. 

King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. 
\_Tlie King puts Laertes' hand into Hamlet' s. 

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir : I've done you 
wrong ; 
But pardon 't, as you are a gentleman. 
This presence knows. 

And you must needs have heard, how I am punished 240 
With sore distraction. What I have done. 
That might your nature, honor antj^exception 
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. 
Was 't Hamlet wronged Laertes ? Never Hamlet : 
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, 245 

And when he 's not himself does wrong Laertes, 
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. 
Who does it, then ? His madness : if 't be so, 
Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged ; 
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy. 2S0 

Sir, in this audience. 
Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil 
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, 
That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house, 
And hurt my brother. 255 



ACT V. SCENE II. 131 

Laer. I am satisfied in nature, 

"Wliose motive, in this case, should stir me most 
To my revenge : but in my terms of honor 
I stand aloof ; and will no reconcilement, 
Till by some elder masters, of known honor, 
I have a voice and precedent of peace, 260 

To keep my name uugored. But till that time, 
I do receive your offered love like love. 
And will not wrong it. 

Ham. I embrace it freely ; 

And will this brother's wager frankly play. 
Give us the foils. Come on. 265 

Laer. Come, one for me. 

Ham. I '11 be your foil, Laertes : in mine ignorance 
Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night. 
Stick fiery off indeed. 

Laer. You mock me, sir. 

Ham. No, by this hand. 

King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin 
Hamlet, , 270 

You know the wager ? 

Ham. Very well, my lord ; 

Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. 

King. I do not fear it; I have seen you both: 
But since he is bettered, we have therefore odds. 

Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. 275 

Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a 
length ? [ Tliey prepare to play. 

Osr. Ay, my good lord. 

Kijig. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. 
If Hamlet give the first or second hit. 
Or quit in answer of the third exchange, 280 



132 HAMLET. 

Let all the battlements their ordnance fire ; 

The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath ; 

And in the cup an union shall he throw, 

Richer than that which four successive kings 

In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups ; 285 

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, 

The trumpet to the cannoneer without, 

The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, 

'Now the king drinks to Hamlet.' Come, begin : 

And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. 290 

Ham. Come on, sir. 

Laer. Come, my lord. [ They play. 

Ham. One. 

Laer. No. 

Ham. Judgement. 

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. 

Laer. Well; again. 

King. Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is 
thine ; 
Here 's to thy health. 

\_Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within. 
Give him the cup. 

Ham. I '11 play this bout first ; set it by awhile. 295 
Come. \_Tliey play.^ Another hit; what say you? 

Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. 

King. Our son shall win. 

Queen. He 's fat, and scant of breath. 

Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows : 
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. 300 

Ham. Good madam ! 

King. Gertrude, do not drink. 

Queen. I will, my lord ; I pray you, pardon me. 



ACT V. SCENE II. 133 

King. \^Asi(le'] It is tlie poisoned cup : it is too late. 

Ham. 1 (lave not drink yet, madam ; by and by. 

Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. 305 

Laer. My lord, I '11 hit him now. 

King. I do not think 't. 

Laer. \^Asicle'] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my con- 
science. 

Ha7n. Come, for the third, Laertes : you but dally ; 
I pray you, pass with your best violence ; 
I am afeard you make a wanton of me. 310 

Laer. Say you so ? Come on. [^Tliey play. 

Osr. Nothing, neither way. 

Laer. Have at you now ! 
[^Laertes ivoimcls Hamlet ; then, in scuffling, they change 
rapiers, and Hamlet ivounds Laertes. 

King. Part them ; they are incensed. 

Ham. Nay, come, again. [The Queen falls. 

Osr. Look to the queen there, ho ! 

Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my 
lord ? 315 

Osr. How is 't, Laertes ? 

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, 
Osric ; 
I am justly killed with mine own treachery. 

Hain. How does the queen ? 

King. She swounds to see them bleed. 

Queen. No, no, the diink, the drink, — my dear 

Hamlet, — 320 

The drink, the drink ! I am poisoned. [Dies. 

Ham. villany ! Ho ! let the door be locked : 
Treachery ! Seek it out. 

Laer. It is here, Hamlet : Hamlet, thou art slain ; 



134 HAMLET. 

No medicine in the world can do tliee good ; 325 

In thee there is not half an honr of life ; 

The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, 

Unbated and envenomed : the foul practice 

Hath turned itself on me ; lo, here I lie, 

Never to rise again : thy mother 's poisoned : 330 

I can no more : the king, the king 's to blame. 

Ham. The point ! — envenomed too ! 
Then, venom, to thy work. [_Stabs the King. 

All. Treason ! treason ! 

Ki7ig. 0, yet defend me, friends ; I am but hurt. 335 

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned 
Dane, 
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here ? 
Eollow my mother. [King dies. 

Laer. He is justly served ; 

It is a poison tempered by himself. 

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet : 340 

Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, 
Nor thine on me ! \_Dies. 

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it ! I follow thee. 
I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu ! 
You that look pale and tremble at this chance, 345 

That are but mutes or audience to this act. 
Had I but time — as this fell sergeant, death, 
Is strict in his arrest — 0, I could tell you — 
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead ; 

Thou livest ; report me and my cause aright 350 

To the unsatisfied. 

Hor. Never believe it : 

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane : 
Here 's yet some liquor left. 



ACT V. SCENE II. 135 

Ham. As tlion 'rt a man, 

Give me the cup : let go ; by heaven, I '11 have 't. 

good Horatio, what a wounded name, 355 
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! 

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, 
Absent thee from felicity awhile. 
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, 
To tell my story. 360 

\^3farch afar off, and shot within. 
What warlike noise is this ? 
Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from 
Poland, 
To the ambassadors of England gives 
This warlike volley. 

Ham. 0, I die, Horatio; 

The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit : 

1 cannot live to hear the news from England ; 365 
But I do prophesy the election lights 

On Fortinbras : he has my dying voice ; 
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, 
Which have solicited. The rest is silence. [Dies. 

Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet 
prince ; 370 

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest ! 
Why does the drum come hither ? \^March within. 

Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and others. 

Fort. Wliere is this sight ? 

Hor. What is it ye would see ? 

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. 

Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. proud death, 375 



136 HAMLET. 

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, 
That thou so many princes at a shot 
So bloodily hast struck ? 

First Amb. The sight is dismal ; 

And our affairs from England come too late : 
The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, 380 
To tell him his commandment is fulfilled, 
That Eosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead : 
Where should we have our thanks ? 

Hor. Not from his mouth, 

Had it the ability of life to thank you : 
He never gave commandment for their death. 385 

But since, so jump upon this bloody question, 
You from the Polack wars, and you from England, 
Are here arrived, give order that these bodies 
High on a stage be placed to the view ; 
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world 390 

How these things came about : so shall you hear 
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts. 
Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters. 
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause. 
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook 395 

Fallen on the inventors' heads : all this can I 
Truly deliver. 

Fort. Let us haste to hear it. 

And call the noblest to the audience. 
For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune : 
I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, 400 

Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. 

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, 
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more : 
But let this same be presently performed. 



ACT V. SCENE II. 137 

Eveu while men's luiiuls are wild ; lest more mischance, 
On plots and errors, happen. 40G 

Fort. Let four captains 

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage ; 
For he was likely, had he been put on. 
To have proved most royally : and, for his passage, 
The soldiers' music and the rites of war 410 

Speak loudly for him. 
Take up the bodies : such a sight as this 
Becomes the field, bnt here shows much amiss. 
Go, bid the soldiers shoot. 

\^A dead march. Exeunt, hearing off the dead bodies; 
after ivliicli a peal of ordnance is shot off. 



A LIST OF THE PERSONS OF THE DRAMA, WITH THE SCENES IN 
WHICH THEY APPEAR. 

Claudius I 2, II 2, III 1 2 3, IV 1 3 5 7, V 1 2. 

Hamlet I 2 4 5, II 2, III 1 2 3 4, IV 2 3 4, V 1 2. 

PoLONius . . I 2 3, II 1 2, III 1 2 3 4. 

Horatio II 2 4 5, III 2, IV 5 6, V 1 2. 

Laertes I 2 8, IV 5 T, V 1 2. 

VOLTIMAND I 2, II 2. 

Cornelius , 1 2, II 2. 

RoSENCRANTZ II 2, III 1 2 3, IV 1 2 3 4. 

GUILDENSTEKN II 2, III 1 2 3, IV 1 2 3 4. 

OsKic V 2. 

A Gentleman IV 5. 

A Priest VL 

Marcellus 112 4 5. 

Bernardo 112. 

Francisco II. 

Reynaldo II 1. 

Players II 2, III 2. 

Two Clowns VI. 

Fortinbras IV 4, V 2. 

A Captain IV 4. , 

English Ambassadors V 2. 

Gbetrudb I 2, II 2, nil 2 4, IV 1 5 T, V 1 2. 

Ophelia I 3, II 1, III 1 2, IV 5. 

Ghost 1 1 4 5, III 4. 

138 



NOTES. 



"Hamlet," says Professor Dowden, "represents the mid period 
of the growth of Shakespeare's genius, when comedy and history 
ceased to be adequate for the expression of his deeper thoughts 
and sadder feelings about life, and when he was entering upon his 
great series of tragic writings." — With the exception of Romeo 
and Juliet, — a distinctly early production, — all the great trage- 
dies group themselves together in the first years of the seventeenth 
century. In this gi'oup of tragedies, Hamlet stands, in the order 
of time, the second. The first of the series is Julius Csesar (IGOl), 
and the last is Coriolanus (1G08). 

The inquisitive Hamlet student will find it interesting to exam- 
ine the problem of the exact date of the play. The relation of the 
first quarto, published in 1603, and now extant, so far as known, 
in only two copies, to the next quarto, of 1604, whif'h givCo lae 
tragedy in its final and accepted form, constitutes one of the many 
riddles that tease the Shakespeare scholar. The first quarto is 
reprinted entire in their notes by Wright, — Cambridge Shake- • 
speare, Vol. IX, — and by Furness, — Variorum Hamlet, Vol. II. 
These editors also explain the significance of this early quarto as 
bearing on our knowledge of the poet's method of composition. 

As to the source from which Shakespeare drew the plot, or 
suggestions of the plot, of Hamlet, — for absolutely original in 
all the elements of his fable he never is, — it is certain that there 
existed already, before his day, a popular play on the same sub- 
ject, — though no such play is now extant ; and it is probable that 
he read the Hamlet story as told by the Frenchman, Belleforest, 
in his Histoires Tragiques, a book that was much read in the poet's 
youth, though the oldest known translation into English bears date 
1608. It is not likely that he knew the story in its oldest form, as 
it appears in the Latin of Saxo Grammaticus, — whose Historia 
Danica was completed about the beginning of the thirteenth cen- 
tury. It is interesting thus to trace Hamlet to its birth in the age 

139 



140 NOTES. 

of mingled history and myth, whence all the greatest ancient as 
well as modern poetry has sprung. 

Some of the difficulties you encounter in the reading of Shake- 
speare are petty obscurities of language that will vanish when you 
consult your International Webster or your Century. Certain 
other difficulties belong essentially to the Shakespearian idiom, 
and are fully mastered only when they have occurred two or three 
times, and have found lodgement in your memory. Just as soon 
as you begin to recognize a word or an expression because you 
have seen it before, you begin to know it. You will do well not 
only to look up all the cross references to which these notes direct 
you, but to find out others for yourself. He who can, all by him- 
self, illustrate play with play, and poet with poet, comes at last 
to feel diminished dependence on external help, and to find new 
enjoyment in his reading. 

ACT I. 

'"-'■■- Scene 1 . 

2. Nay, answer me. Francisco's 7iay expresses reproof, and 
his answer me must be read, not as an appeal, but as a correction, 
with accent on the pronoun. Bernardo has violated the order of 
military procedure, which requires that the sentinel on duty shall 
challenge any one who approaches him. Bernardo, in his trepida- 
tion challenging the sentinel, has first to be set right as to form : 
then he receives Francisco's challenge, advances, and gives the 
countersign. 

13. The rivals of my watch. Note the lost meaning of rival. 
See rivality, Ant. and Cle. iii 5 8. Bival has an interesting history. 

14. Stand, ho ! who 's there ? Though now duly relieved by his 
successor on the post, and therefore no longer sentinel, Francisco 
challenges the approaching Horatio and Marcellus. Then he goes 
off, to be no more heard of during the play. 

18. Give you good night. The phrase has here lost only its 
nominative. As we now use it, it no longer has nominative, verb, 
or dative, and we have forgotten that it ever was a complete sen- 



ACT I. SCEiWE I. 141 

teiice. Compare As You Like It v 1 lu ; Tit. And. iv 4 42 ; Rom, 
ami Jul. i '2 57. 

21-29. Tlie words by wliicli Marcellus refers to the ghost that 
they have seen present an interesting climax of definiteness and 
directness. Show how the scene gains in dramatic vigor by this 
gradual approach to its main theme. 

33, 34. sit we down and let us hear. These verb-forms are 
usually called imperatives of the first person. They would be more 
correctly described as expressions of wish or exhortation addressed 
by one of a group to the entire group, in which the speaker includes 
himself. The imperative proper is confined to the second person. 
In sit loe, sit is subjunctive. In let tis hem; let is imperative plural, 
and hear infinitive. The latter form is periphrastic, and in modern 
English has prevailed entirely over the older and simpler subjunc- 
tive phrase. 

42. Thou art a scholar ; speak to it. The conjuring and exor- 
cising of spirits was, in real life, traditionally performed in Latin. 
See 2 Henry VI. i 4 i-io. On the stage of course this business had 
usually to be managed in English : and yet it remained peculiarly 
the scholar's function. See Much Ado ii 1 264. The power of 
effective speech is in Shakespeare eminently the note of the 
scholar. See L. L. Lost iv 2 9 ; Shrew i 2 159 ; Hamlet iii 1 159. 

44. It harrows me. Compare Hamlet i 5 16. 

65. jump at this dead hour. What part of speech is jump 
here ? Compare Hamlet v 2 386 ; Othello ii 3 392. 

70. Good now. With these words Marcellus seems to appeal 
gently to the others to discuss more in detail the strange er^iption 
to our state which Horatio has vaguely presaged. Read Good no, to 
with upward inflection. 

tell me he that knows. He is the subject of tell, which is in 
the subjunctive, with the force of a command or exhortatio'-i. 

72. toils the subject. Illustrate this use of the verb to-' ' by 
reference to 2 Henry VI. i 1 83 ; Dream v 1 74. See suhjecu used 
again in this sense, Hamlet i 2 as ; Meas. for Meas. iii 2 i45.' So the 
Latin word miles, as in Virgil's late loca milite complent'- 

11. What might be toward. A very common usfO of toioard, 
as in Hamlet v 2 376 ; Lear ii 1 ii, 

/ 



142 NOTES. 

87. heraldry. See, besides the dictionary, the other instances 
of the use of the word in Shakespeare : Dream iii 2 213 ; All's Well 
ii 3 280 ; Hamlet ii 2 478 ; Othello iii 4 47. 

94. carriage must be understood as meaning import or tenor, 
and as referring to the stipulations of the article designed or men- 
tioned above, in line 86, as a sealed compact. 

107. The word romage, or rummage, has an interesting 
origin. 

108. I think it be. The use of this particular subjunctive form, 
be, with think, is very frequejit. See Hamlet v 1 131 ; Cymbeline 
i 1 9 ; As You Like It ii 7 i. Hardly less frequent is the indicative 
form is in the same connection. See As You Like It iii 4 23, 29 ; 
Othello iv 2 196 ; iv 3 99. Any other verb than be in the subjunctive 
after think is rare. To make any distinction in these cases as 
regards meaning is difficult. Note, as of peculiar interest, Othello 
iii 3 384. 

109. Well may it sort. That is, it is quite in harmony with 
your theory of the cause of the warlike preparations which we see 
going on in the state. See 3 Henry VI. v 5 26 ; Henry V. iv 1 63. 
Note the verb sort used transitively, Hamlet ii 2 274 ; Richard III. 
ii 3 36. 

117. As stars with trains of fire, etc. The language implies an 
ellipsis of something preceding. Supply such a phrase as, — such 
things were seen. 

118. Disasters in the sun. The etymology of the word disaster 
helps explain its use in this expression. See Lear i 2 131. 

the moist star. See Wint. Tale i 2 l. 
'; 154. The extravagant and erring spirit. Both these adjectives 
have the simple meaning due them by their etymology ; and both 
have- come to have quite other meanings in modern English. 

156 . made probation : gave proof. 

1.68. 'Gainst that season comes. So in Dream iii 2 99 ; Shrew 
iv 4 i\04. 

162. V no planets strike. So we say sun-struck, moon-struck. 

163. ^o fairy takes. Just as we still say, a vaccination takes. 
166. in russet mantle clad. Eecall Milton's use of the word 

russet. Allegro 71. 



ACT I. SCENE II. 143 

Describe the situation as cleveloptHl in the first scene. IIow is 
this situation reflected in the minds of men ? 

Scene 2. 

2. The word that serves instead of a repeated though, as que 
is often used in French. In modern English the though would 
either be repeated or left to be understood. 

13. delight and dole. Note the alliteration. 

14. barred : that is, failed to consult. 

17. Now follows that you know. The Jcnoio is probably sub- 
junctive, and the sentence means, — / ivill now proceed to inform 
you. 

21. Colleagued with the dream of his advantage : fancying 
he sees a chance to take advantage of us. 

29. bedrid. This is the primitive form, and is more correct 
than bedridden. Look up the history of the word. 

31. his further gait. Gait is etymologically the same word as 
gate, derived from the root of the verb get. Do not connect it 
with go. 

38. The scope of these dilated articles. The king warns his 
envoys not to transcend the powers conferred upon them ; and in 
the Words quoted directs them to examine their instructions in 
detail, to make sure of the limits of their authority. Dilated 
seems to mean, carefully analyzed. — Note the grammatical error 
in allow. 

63. And thy best graces spend it at thy will : spend it for 
your improvement in those accomplishments which you most esteem. 

65. A little more than kin and less than kind. Hamlet refers 
to the king's words, my cousin and my son. It is as if he should 
say, — yes, I am more to you now than mere cousin (we should 
say, nephew) ; but less than child. Just what meaning was con- 
veyed to an Elizabethan public by the word kind we cannot now 
quite understand. The alliterative coupling of kin and kind had 
perhaps brought into vogTie a proverb known to everybody, giving 
to Hamlet's words point and relevancy. 

Hamlet's first words in the play are therefore an aside. Describe 
the first impression which we form of his character. 



144 NOTES. 

67. I am too much in the sun. Perhaps, with punning refer- 
ence to son, Hamlet expresses his irritation at being called son by 
the king. 

70. thy vailed lids. See the same expression, Venus and 
Adonis 956. See also Merchant i 1 28 ; Pericles ii 3 42. 

87. Comparing the verse passages in which the word commend- 
able occurs, we find it accented sometimes on the first syllable, 
and sometimes on the second. If in this instance we accent the 
first syllable, we must read the verse as an alexandrine. Abbott, 
(Shakespearian Grammar) , objecting to lines of six accents, reads 
thus: 

'Tis swedt and comm&idable in your nature, Hamlet. 

The reader must take his choice. 

95. a will most incorrect to heaven. Think out modern 
phrases for the expression of this idea. 

112. Do I impart toward you. Verses 110-112 are trouble- 
some to construe. The best way to read them is, to forget, as soon 
as you have read 110, that it contains a ivitJi. Then still remains 
the unsatisfactory, but intelligible, toward. 

119. The line reads naturally as an alexandrine, with pause in 
the middle. It may be reduced to regular form by making the last 
two syllables of Wittenberg a dissyllabic light ending. 

124. Sits smiling to my heart. Similar uses of sit are common 
in Chaucer. See Duchesse 1220 ; Hit nas no game, it sat me sore. 

137. possess it merely. The adverb belongs, of course, gram- 
matically, to the verb ; though logically it limits the subject. 

140. Hyperion to a satyr. Shakespeare ascribes to Hyperion, 
god of the sun, characteristics strictly proper to Apollo. See de- 
scription of satyrs in classical dictionary. 

159. break my heart. My heart is the subject of break, and is 
not in the vocative. Eead without pause after break. 

163. Be sure you accent the line properly. 

164. What make you? How should we ask this question 
to-day? 

182. my dearest foe. Dr. Murray shows that dear in this 
sense is a radic&lly different word from dear meaning beloved or 



ACT I. SCENE HI. 145 

esteemed. See Eichard II. i 3 151 ; Timoii v 1 231 ; Sonnet 37 ; 
Lycidas G. 

18o. Or ever I had seen. Recall Ecclesiastes xii G. 

190. Saw ? Who ? You cannot inflect these questions wrongly 
if you apprehend the situation. Beginners often read them so as 
to destroy their meaning. 

102. Season your admiration. To learn the meaning of the 
verb season in this play, study the cases where it occurs, viz. : 
i 3 81 ; ii 1 28 ; iii 2 219 ; iii 3 86. 

198. In the dead vast and middle of the night. See Tempest 
i 2 327 ; rerioles iii 1 i. 

200. Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe. See the phrase at 
point., Macbeth iv 3 135 ; Lear i 4 347. The modern de pied en cap 
you will lind in any French dictionary under cap. 

204. with the act of fear. We should say, by the action, or by 
the operation, or under the influence, of fear. 

206. Find conventional modern phrase that shall express with 
equal force the idea of the words, in dreadfxd secrecy. 

230. his beaver. So 1 Henry IV. iv 1 104 ; 2 Henry IV. iv 1 120 
and often elsewhere. Do not imagine that this word heaver has 
any kinship with the name of the fur-bearing rodent. 

231. With the verb looh the poet usually employs the adverb to 
complete the predicate. What is the modern usage in this matter ? 

238. tell a hundred. See Dream v 1 370 ; Sonnet 30 ; Eichard 
III. i 4 122. This is the primitive meaning of tell. 

242. I will watch to-night. What word bears the emphasis ? 

245. should gape and bid me. As to the meaning of gape, 
get a suggestion from Henry VIII. v 4 1-3. 

248. Let it be tenable in your silence. To say that the secret 
is tenable in your silence is to say that you are capable of holding, 
or keeping, the secret. 

Scene 3. 

6. a fashion and a toy in blood. Fashion Polonius will help 
you to interpret in line 112 below. Toy is defined in 1 Henry VI. 
iv 1 145. See a good comment on hlood in Hamlet iii 2 74. 

7. primy is perhaps a Shakespearian coinage. It occurs only 
here. 



146 NOTES. 

9. suppliance of a minute : what the passing minute supplies. 

15. The words of tlie line are all explained by the dictionaries. 
See Coriolanus iv 1 33 ; Csesar ii 1 129 ; L. L. Lost ii 1 47 ; Henry 
V. iv 3 110. 

30. The word credent, here used actively, and meaning C7-eclu- 
lous, the poet, with his wonted confusion of voice, elsewhere some- 
times uses to mean credible. See Meas. for Meas. iv 4 29. 

34-35. Note the military figures. 

36-37. The chariest maid, etc. The superlative seems strangely 
out of place. We should expect, rather, the " un chariest. " As 
it is, we must make chariest mean, — really chary. 

39-42. From what source are drawn the figures of these lines ? 
See th.e word disclose with zoological application, Hamlet iii 1 174 ; 
V 1 310. See also 2 Henry VI. iii 1 89 ; Two Gent, i 1 48. 

46-51. Note the anacoluthon in Ophelia's speech, and rectify 
her language in accordance with modern standards. On puffed 
compare Hamlet iv 4 49. 

59. See thou character. Character is here in the subjunctive 
to the eye as well as to the understanding. See the word similarly 
used, but differently accented, As You like It iii 2 6. 

60. unproportioned : unfitting, improper. 

62, 63. The syntax can hardly be corrected without enfeebling 
the sentence. 

69. censure : opinion or judgement, whether approving or con- 
demning. 

58-80. The famous advice of Polonius to Laertes is too formal, 
precise, and studied to seem spontaneous. It is quite possible that 
the public of Shakespeare's day recognized the speech as being 
commonplace and conventional, and therefore in keeping with the 
character of the man who is to elicit from Hamlet the comment 
(ii 2 223) these tedious old fools. 

81. my blessing season this in thee. That is, cause thee to 
take it to heart, as wholesome and serious advice earnestly meant, 
even though familiar and trite as a piece of moralizing. 

83. tend, a common abbreviation for attend. 

94. as so 'tis put on me. See^wi with on in the same sense, 
As You Like It i 2 99 ; Twelfth Night v 1 70. 



ACT I. SCENE IV. 147 

102. unsifted. Tliat is, who has had no experience iji sifting ; 
or, perhaps, wlio would not endure the test of a sifting in this 
dangerous matter. For the meaning of sift in this figurative 
sense, see Hamlet ii 2 58 ; All's Well v 3 124 ; Kichard II. i 1 12 ; 
1 Henry VI. iii 1 24. 

107. sterling. Look np the etymology of this word. 

108. not to crack the wind of the poor phrase. Whence 
comes the figure ? 

109. you '11 tender me a fool. Read me as a dative : you '11 
tender to me a fool, or show me that I have a fool for a daughter. 

115. Be sure of the pronunciation of springe. 

125. with a larger tether he may walk. Whence comes the 
figure ? 

12G. in few. Recall these words when, in a following scene, 
you find Polonius again professing that he will be brief. 

127. they are brokers. Shakespeare regularly uses brol'er in 
the sense of go-between, with degrading implication. Look up the 
etymology of broker. 

Scene 4. 

1. The air bites shrewdly. See bite in this sense, As You Like 
It ii 1 s ; and shrewd, applied again to the weather, same play, 

V 4 179. 

2. a nipping and an eager air. See eager in a very different 
application, i 5 69. See also 2 Henry VI. ii 4 3. 

8. takes his rouse.' Compare i 2 127 ; ii 1 58. 

9. Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels. On 
wassail compare Macbeth i 7 64. Look up the origin of this word. 
The up-spring was a dance. Reels may here be a transitive verb. 
Then the expression means, — reels, or staggers, through the bois- 
terous dance. 

11. The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out. All the 
braying in Shakespeare is ascribed to drums and trumpets, or to 
minstrelsy. Recall Keats' silver snarling trumpets in St. Agnes' 
Eve. 

15, 16. One of the most frequently quoted passages. 

18. A very common usage of the preposition of. 



148 NOTES. 

20. Soil our addition. Addition is constantly employed in this 
sense. See Hamlet ii 1 47 ; Macbeth i 3 106 ; Lear i 1 138. 

22. Johnson, as quoted by Furness, interprets, — " The best and 
most valuable part of the praise that would otherwise be attributed 
to us." 

23. Hamlet goes on to extend his moralizing from national traits 
to individual peculiarities. 

24. mole is here blemish in the most general sense. 

27. complexion, which ordinarily means temperament^ may 
here be equivalent to idiosyncrasy. 

28. Reason is here conceived as a restraining influence : whence 
the figures, pales and forts. 

30. plausive manners : pleasing, popular manners. 
35. in the general censure : in the general estimate, or in the 
final public verdict. 

36-38. the dram of eale 

Doth all the noble substance of a doubt 

To his own scandal. 

The passage can hardly be read with the familiar acceptations 
and usages of words ; yet its purport is obvious. You may read 
in Furness the multitude of attempts that have been made at 
emendation of the text or at elucidation of it as it stands. Per- 
haps the best way to deal with the passage is, provisionally, to 
follow Professor Corson, who allows the text to stand, and manages 
it thus : Eale is equivalent to evil or ill. The verb of the passage is 
doth substance; all the noble — an adjective used as a noun — is 
the object of doth substance-, and of has its common ancient mean- 
ing with. In this view of the passage, sribstance is a verb meaning 
to infect or taint; and the sentence means, — the dram of evil doth 
taint all the noble (part of the character) with a doubt. Such an 
interpretation cannot of course be finally accepted until an un- 
doubted instance of a verb substance — meaning something like 
infect — can be found in Elizabethan literature. In to his own 
scandal consider his as neuter, and referring to all the noble. 

39. Angels and ministers of grace perhaps means, — Angels, 
and ye other heavenly powers. 



ACT I. SCENE IV. 149 

40. A spirit of health is the antithesis to goblin damned, and 
hence means a spirit of salvation, or a spirit that is saved. 

41, 42. Note the conditional subjunctives briny and he. Do not 
mistake these forms for imperatives. 

43. questionable : affable, inviting question. 

47. thy canonized bones. Canonize is always so accented in 
Shakespeare. Strictly, it means, received into the number of the 
saints. Here, however, it must mean, — buried with the due rites 
of the church. 

48. cerements, with the same meaning as cerecloth, Merchant 
ii 7 51. 

52. in complete steel. Complete is, in various passages, ac- 
cented both ways. 

54, 55. and we fools of nature 

So horridly to shake our disposition. 

You can easily improve the syntax: can you make the sentence 
clearer or more forcible ? 

71. That beetles o'er his base into the sea. The verb beetle 
Dr. Murray thinks Shakespeare coined. Before the poet's time 
there was only the adjective beetle, used to qualify the noun brow, 
or as a part of the compound beetle-browed. Beetles into the sea 
seems to us strange, but is quite clear. 

73. which might deprive your sovereignty of reason. Clearly 
intended to bear the meaning, — which might deprive you of your 
sovereign power of reason. 

83. The Nemean lion's nerve. Look up the story of Her- 
cules. 

85. I '11 make a ghost of him that lets me. The vocable let 
belongs to two different verbs, distinct in origin, history, and 
meaning. Unlike in form and sound in Old English, they still 
remain unlike in the language of Chaucer, where they would not 
be confounded either to the ear or to the eye. All Chaucer readers 
know the two verbs and their dissimilar inflections. It is wholly 
wrong to say that "the verb let" sometimes has the unusual mean- 
ing to hinder. See Twelfth Night v 1 256 ; Gentlemen iii 1 11.3. 

89. Have after. Compare the common phrase. Have loith you, 



150 NOTES. 

as in As You Like It i 2 268. With his have after Horatio virtually 
repeats Marcellus' Let ''s follow. 

Scene 5. 

6. I am bound to hear. There are two participles having the 
same word-f orin , or vocable, bound. One of these was in middle 
English spelled boun, the d of the modern form being an excres- 
cence. This word means, primarily, prepared or ready. See it in 
Chaucer's Frankeleyn's Tale, 1503, — 

As she was boun to goon the wey forth-right. 

This is the word that appears, Hamlet iii 3 4i ; Tempest i 2, 235, and 
often elsewhere. When Hamlet says to the ghost, I am bound to 
hear, he seems to be using this word ; but the ghost, in his reply, 
takes Hamlet's bound to mean under obligation. In this sense 
bound is the participle of the verb bind. The latter is of course 
the word used in the Merchant 13 5; i 3 lo, etc. 

16. harrow up thy soul. An agricultural figure. Recall i 1 44, 
and see Coriolanus v 3 34. 

17. thy eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. To under- 
stand the business of stars shooting from their spheres, you must 
acquaint yourself somewhat with the Ptolemaic astronomy, which 
was the astronomy of Shakespeare and all the Elizabethans. This 
you can best do by means of Masson's introduction to his Globe 
Milton. See Dream ii 1 153. The spheres long ago ceased to figure 
in our poetry ; but the spheres and their music furnish one of the 
commonest motives to the poets of Shakespeare's and Milton's 
time. 

19. to stand an end. The preposition anciently had the form 
an in familiar phrases before a vowel. It is now regularly on or 
in except when its prepositional force is forgotten : then it appears 
like, and is usually mistaken for, the article, as in the phrases go a 
hunting^ twice an hour., twice a year. 

21. this eternal blazon : this revelation of the secrets of eter- 
nity. 

29. Haste ine to know 't. You must learn to entertain the 
Shakespearian syntax without taking offence at its strangeness. 



ACT I. SCENE V. 151 

32. the fat weed 

That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf. 

It is impossible to name any particular plant or weed that the poet 
could have had in mind. But consider the case of a plant growing 
on the bank of Lethe. One draught of tliis water caused the human 
soul to forget its past and to step out of the unrest of thought into 
the ease of oblivion. But here is a plant that drinks of Lethe all 
the time, and is permanently fixed and rooted in ease : all its life 
has been there : all its juices are Lethe water. It is the very 
symbol and type of dull forgetfulness. — The ghost may be con- 
ceived as having just come from the Lethe country, where he has 
noted the gi-owth of the fat weed by the riverside. 

37. a forged process of my death. See Merchant iv 1 274. 

52. To those of mine : more lame syntax. 

61. my secure hour. Secnre is used in its most frequent 
Shakespearian sense. Was his hour, in our sense of the word, 
secure? 

62. juice of cursed hebenon. It is possible to trace hehenon 
(perhaps henbane) through the literature of the period. See this 
done in Furness. 

69. like eager droppings. Recall the instance you have already 
had of eager applied to the air, and see Sonnet 118 ; Eichard II. 
V 3 75 ; 3 Henry VI. ii 6 68. 

72. Look up the origin of lazar. 

77. Three ecclesiastical terms, all referring to the same fact. 
Look them up in the dictionary. 

85. Taint not thy mind : keep your motives pure, unmixed 
with thoughts of mere personal revenge. 

92. In the intensity of his passion, Hamlet seeks the most 
impressive and solemn sanctions for the oath he is taking. But 
he rejects the thought of adding hell to heaven and earth as an 
object of invocation. 

93-94. My heart and my sinews are vocative, and the verbs 
are proper imperatives. 

97. In this distracted globe : meaning, probably, his head. 

107. My tables, — meet it is I set it down. — The student's 



152 NOTES. 

habit. The contents of such tables are hinted in the foregoing 
lines, 98-101. Busy keepers of tables are apt to have weak memo- 
ries, and a great resolution is not strengthened by being set down. 

110-111. Now to my word : 

It is 'Adieu, Adieu, remember me.' 

Thus he repeats the ghost's injunction as the consummation and 
completion of his oath. Now he can say, I have sworn 't. 

124. arrant has an interesting origin. 

147. Upon my sword. Among soldiers an oath taken with the 
hands upon the cross of a sword-hilt was peculiarly sacred. 

163. A worthy pioner : that is, good at mining. See Henry V. 
iii 2 92. Look up the origin of pioner. 

167. Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Do not put the 
least shade of accent on yoiir. Hamlet is never discourteous to 
Horatio. See Hamlet iv 3 22, 24 ; As You Like It v 4 63. 

172. antic : odd, fantastic. 

174. with arms encumbered thus : folded, — and he shows 
how he means, — as a sign that one bears an important secret. 
We can hardly understand what this posture of the arms could 
have been. 

178. What must be the meaning here of the verb note ? 

Marcellus here drops out of the play, bearing an important part 
of Hamlet's secret. Henceforth dramatically non-existent, we may 
in thought couple him with Horatio as representing the great Danish 
public, that remains loyal to its young prince through all vicissi- 
tude, and could have been counted on in any honest attempt of 
Hamlet to carry out his resolution. 

ACT II. 

Scene 1 . 

7. Inquire me first. Kead me as a dative, without accent. 

8-9. Supply the omitted verbs. 

10. this encompassment. No one knows what this means 
better than Polonius himself, and he defines it for us in line 65 
below. 



ACT II. SCENE II. 153 

11. more nearer. A doubling of the comparative frequent in 
the plays. See Merchant iv 1 251 ; Tempest 1 2 it). 

24-20. These lines give specifications of wild and usual slips; 
whereas line 30 names an habitual vice of character. 

36. Wherefore should you do this .' Head this question as if 
it were introduced with the words, — AVere you about to ask. 

38. a fetch of warrant : a justifiable trick. Fetch as a noun is 
rare in Shakespeare. See Lear ii 4 90. 

45. He closes with you in this consequence : he pursues the 
subject you have introduced, or follows out the cue you have given 
him, in this manner. 

47. addition, as in i 4 20. 

58. o'ertook in 's rouse : overcome by intoxication. 

64. We of wisdom and of reach. The conceit of the old diplo- 
matist. — Recall the instance you have just had, i 4 56, of reach as 
a noun. 

68. you have me. So in All's Well iii 6 101. 

71. observe his inclination in yourself: note Avhether he treats 
you with frankness and cordiality. 

73. Let him ply his music : let him talk as much as he will. 

78. his doublet all unbraced. We should say, his coat un- 
buttoned. 

80. his stockings . . . down-gyved to his ancle. His stock- 
ings are so down about his ankles that they remind Ophelia of the 
fetters she has seen on the legs of criminals. 

102. This is the very ecstasy of love. In considering whether 
Polonius is right, take into account Hamlet's words v 1 292. 

103. fordoes itself. Compare v 1 244 ; Othello v 1 129 ; Dream 
V 1 381. Distinguish carefully between the /o?'-verbs, — like forgo, 
fordo, forget, forbear, forbid, forgive, forsake ; and the /ore-verbs, 
— \Wg forecast, foretell, foresee, forerun, forestall. 

119. More grief to hide than hate to utter love. To hide and to 
utter are true gerunds, and would be translated into Latin by gerunds 
in the ablative case. 

Scene 2. 

2. Moreover, which by itself is an adverb, makes, in combina- 
tion with that, a phrase which is a conjunction. 



154 NOTES. 

6. Sith is here a conjunction, meaning since. In line 12 the 
same word is an adverb, meaning since that time. We can use 
since now in both these ways. Look up the origin of since. 

17. whether counts as a monosyllable in the verse. 

22. So much gentry and good will. See gentry in a similar 
sense, v 2 114 ; so in Lucrece, 569. 

67. falsely borne in hand : treacherously taken advantage of. 
Compare Macbeth iii 1 81. — sends out arrests. Modern syntax 
would require the repetition of the subject. The omission of a 
pronoun not required for clearness is very frequent in Shakespeare. 

77-78. Eemember this arrangement for a military passage of 
Fortinbras through Denmark. 

80. It likes us well. The verb like originally meant to please, 
and was impersonal, as here. It is still always impersonal in the 
English of Chaucer. In Shakespeare the two usages exist side by 
side. To-day we can no longer say, — it likes us. 

81. at our more considered time : when we shall have had 
time to consider the matter more carefully. 

86. to expostulate 

What majesty should be. 

By expostulate Polonius can only mean expound or explain. 

111. beautified is a vile phrase. Do you not agree with 
Polonius ? 

123. whilst this machine is to him. * Only in this passage does 
Shakespeare use the word machine. See Wordsworth's poem. She 
was a Phantom of Delight. 

126. And more above : still more than this. Ophelia has made 
to her father a detailed confession of Hamlet's love-making. 

136. If I had played the desk or table-book. . . . 
No, I went round to work. 
Hamlet mourns that he cannot act : Polonius boasts that he can 
and does. No setting things down in tables for Polonius. May 
we imagine that Polonius has observed, and formed an opinion 
about, Hamlet's blank-books and his perpetual note-taking ? 

160. He walks four hours together. The numeral /o?tr seems 
to have been occasionally used with something of the same indefi- 



ACT II. SCENE II. 155 

niteness as our th7'ee or four, which, however, is itself very com- 
mon in Shakespeare. 

162. I '11 loose my daughter to him. llemeniber that Ophelia 
is under strict injunction to lock herself from Hamlet's resort. 
The word loose, therefore, is perfectly relevant. 

170. O give me leave : pardon me for interrupting you. 

19(5. Between who? Hamlet feigns to understand Polonius as 
meaning a matter in dispute. 

204. I hold it not honesty, etc., for yourself, sir, should be as 
old as I am : I shall one day be as old as you are, and have the 
same infirmities; and then I shall wish old age to be spoken of 
with respect. 

269-272. There is no need of searching for logical coherence 
in a speech which ends with the speaker's assertion, — I cannot 
reason. But perhaps, though this be madness, there may be in it 
some such method as this : The condition of the beggar is no- 
body's dream, or ambition ; therefore the beggar, not being a 
dream, is a reality, or a body. But the monarchs and heroes are 
the objects of dreams, and hence are unsubstantial. — In writing 
outstretched heroes the poet may have had in mind the recumbent 
figures of kings and nobles familiar to everybody in England. 

274. No such matter : no indeed ; you shall not perform for 
me the offices of servants. I will not sort you ; I will not class 
you. 

277. in the beaten way of friendship : to ask you the question 
usual and expected among friends. 

282. my thanks are too dear a halfpenny : my thanks can 
avail you nothing. Do hot understand the a as the article. It 
is the preposition an, meaning at. 

293. That you must teach me. Put the accents on the pro- 
nouns. 

305. prevent, as so often in our older literature, means to 
forestall, or anticipate, your secrecy to the king and queen 
moult no feather : your secrecy shall not be in the least violated. 

313. fretted with golden fire. See Ctesar ii 1 104 ; Cymbeline 
11 4 88. 

317. how express ! Dr. Murray defines express, as here used, 



156 NOTES. 

well framed or modelled, and characterizes this meaning as a 
"nonce-use." This passage is the only one he cites to illustrate 
express in this sense. 

330. We coted them. Dr. Murray cites many cases of cote 
meaning to overtake and pass by. The word is obsolete. 

335. the humorous man : the capricious, eccentric man. 

337. whose lungs are tickled o' the sere : an expression which 
it is no longer possible to explain in detail. Evidently, however, 
it means, ■ — who laugh on very slight provocation. 

346. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late 
innovation. Their inhibition may mean, ■ — -their loss of patronage 
resulting from their unsuccessful competition with the boys ; and 
the late innovation may refer to the "license which had been given 
on 30 Jan. 1603-4 to the Children of the Queen's Revels to play at 
the Blackfriar's Theater and other convenient places." 

354. an aery of children, little eyases. The dictionary will 
give all needed help. The word eyas has a peculiarly interesting 
origin and history. 

362. how are they escoted ? Look up the expression scot and 
lot. Note that scot is what Skeat calls a " doublet " of shot. 

367. Exclaim against their own succession. That is, they 
injure the business for adults, while they themselves are about to 
become adults. 

369. much to do. The phrase is simply another form of much 
ado. The two prepositional infinitives have just the same con- 
struction ; but one of them has fully developed into a noun. 

370. to tarre them to controversy. Compare K. John iv 1 117 ; 
Troilus i 3 392. 

377. Do the boys carry it away? Eecall the French expres- 
sion, Vemporter. 

384. 'Sblood. You will find it interesting to make a collection 
of the various swearing-phrases of the plays. 'Sblood is a short- 
ened God''s blood, as ''swoimds, line 604, is from God's wounds. 

388. Your hands, come then, etc. Hamlet bethinks himself 
that he has not given to Eosencrantz and Guildenstern a proper 
princely welcome, and that all the attendants must have noticed 
his cold demeanor towards these old friends. As he does not wish 



ACT II. SCENE II. 157 

to be seen greeting a company of players with more effusive cor- 
diality than he dot-s two gentlemen of the court, he takes pains, 
before the players enter, to rectify the situation by adding to his 
former welcome (line 228) certain details of ceremony to which all 
are accustomed. 

390. let me comply with you in this garb : let me join with 
you in an interchange of those conventional forms of salutation 
which befit a prince meeting his friends. 

396. I am but mad north-north-west, etc. The obscurity of 
the speech is probably due to our unfamiliarity with the practice 
of hawking. To know a hawk from a handsaw was a proverb, in 
which, possibly, handsaw is a corruption of heronshaio, or hern- 
shaw, the name of a bird hunted by falconers. 

406. o' Monday morning : 't was so indeed. The latter part 
of his speech Hamlet speaks aloud, to be heard by Polonius, and 
to mislead him as to the subject of his talk with Rosencrantz and 
Guildenstern. 

410. when Roscius was an actor in Rome. Hamlet teases 
Polonius by being the first to mention actor. 

412. Buz, buz! "said to have been a common exclamation of 
impatience or contempt when any one was telling a well known 
story." Dr. Murray. 

414. Then came each actor on his ass : possibly quoted from 
a ballad. 

419-421. Polonius cites Seneca as the type of tragedy, and 
Plautus as the type of comedy. — For the law of writ and the 
liberty. Of the many explanations of this passage. Collier's, as 
quoted by Furness, is the simplest: "the players were good 
whether at written productions or at extemporal plays." 

422. O Jephthah, judge of Israel. See the story, Judges 
xi29. 

432. Nay, that follows not. Hamlet plays on the ambiguity 
of" the word follows. The verses quoted by Hamlet are from a 
known ballad of the time. See Furness. 

439. In what two senses may Hamlet call the players his 
abridgements? 

446. by the altitude of a chopine. See an account of the 



158 NOTES. 

chopine, with illustrations, in Knight's note on this passage in his 
Pictorial Shakespeare. Or see the International Dictionary. 

447. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be 
not cracked within the ring. Remember that the words, — " my 
young lady and mistress," — are really addressed to a hoy, who 
plays the part of the lady, and who will become disqualified for this 
function when his voice begins to change. Hamlet finds that the 
boy has grown. — Cracked loithin the ring is thus explained by 
Knight : " In coins of the 16th century the head of the sovereign 
is invariably contained within a circle, between which and the rim 
the legend is given. The test of currency in a coin was that it 
should not be cracked within the circle or ring. If the crack, to 
which the thin coins of that age were particularly liable, extended 
beyond the ring, the money was no longer considered good." See 
numerous representations of such coins in Vol. 3 of Knight's Popu- 
lar History of England. 

457. 't was caviare to the general. The phrase has become so 
thoroughly embedded in standard English speech that every dic- 
tionary is sure to explain it. 

459. cried in the top of mine : had more authority than mine. 

462. no Ballets in the lines to make the matter savory : no 
high seasoning to recommend the lines to a vitiated taste. 

466. more handsome than fine : more abounding in natural 
and simple beauties than in artificial ones. 

472. Recall Merchant ii 7 41. 

472-541. The verses which Hamlet and the player deliver are, 
of course, not drama at all, but epic, and, in respect both to manner 
and to matter, are in the strain of Virgil. There is much discus- 
sion as to whether Shakespeare inserted this Pyrrhus episode in 
mockery of a poetic style in vogue in his day, or really esteemed 
it as highly as he makes Hamlet praise it, line 459. This is one of 
the mysteries of the play. The taste of the present day does not 
approve such verse. But did the Elizabethan taste also reject 
poetry of this sort ? 

502. as a painted tyrant. Do not imagine that this refers to 
Pyrrhus being total gules. For the m'eaning of painted, see the 
Ancient Mariner 117-118. 



ACT III. SCENE I. 159 

505. against some storm. Recall i 1 158, where against., in 
similar sense, is used as a conjunction. 

622. he 's for a jig : he wants something comic. 

595. John-a-dreams : a cant expression for an incapable, in- 
etficient fellow, perhaps known to the comedy of the day. 

ACT III. 

Scene 1 . 

1. drift of circumstance. The king seems to mean very much 
what Polonius did, ii 1 10, by encompassment and drift of question. 

2. In view of the meaning given by Shakespeare to the phrase, 
put on, it is by no means to be concluded that the king means to 
express the belief that Hamlet is assuming his confusion. Thougli 
we understand that Hamlet is feigning madness, we must not con- 
sider the king in possession of the secret. Why he jmts on this 
confusion may mean simply, — what is the cause of the mental 
aberration that has befallen him. 

8. keeps aloof : subject lacking, as in ii 2 67. 

12. with much forcing of his disposition : much against his 
Inclination. 

13. Niggard of question ; but of our demands most free in 
his reply. Tliese words cannot be understood except on the 
assumption that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are purposely mis- 
representing Hamlet's behavior towards themselves. What motive 
can you imagine them to have for such misrepresentation ? 

31. may here affront Ophelia: the regular Shakespearian 
meaning of affront. See Wint. Tale v 1 75 ; Cymbeline iv 3 29. 

47. with devotion's visage, etc. Polonius naturally assumes 
that in Ophelia the act of reading on a book is an act of devotion. 
Note the mingling of figures, with devotion's visage we do sugar o'er. 

58. slings and arrows seem curiously chosen to typify the 
inflictions of adverse fortune. 

59. to take arms against a sea of troubles must be generalized 
thus : to make resistance to a multitude of calamities. 

65. there 's the rub. See the noun rub in a similar sense, 
Henry V. v 2 33 ; Coriolanus iii 1 60 ; Macbeth iii 1 134. 



160 NOTES. 

67. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. The figure 
regards the soul as entangled and ensnared by its connection with 
the body. 

68. the respect : the consideration. 

88. Soft you now! Evidently addressed to himself. 

89. in thy orisons be all my sins remembered. In reading 
be careful as to where you put the accent. 

114. this was sometime a paradox. Hamlet's dictum was not 
a paradox in the sense that it was self-contradictory, but in the 
sense that it contradicted general opinion. 

120. we shall relish of it : that is, of our old stock. 

132. Where's your father? At home, my lord. Hamlet, as 
we know, feigns his madness for a purpose : account for Ophelia's 
lying. Is it possible that Hamlet knew Polonius was present and 
overhearing his interview with Ophelia ? 

151. make your wantonness your ignorance. You excuse 
immodest words or deeds by pretending you knew no better. 

159. The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword. 
Do the elements of the two triplets of which the line consists corre- 
spond, in order of collocation, with their obvious logical connection? 

191. let her be round with him. As to meaning of round, 
compare Twelfth Night ii 3 102. 

Scene 2. 

2. trippingly on the tongue : with clean and distinct articula- 
tion, so as to be understood. We have no town-criers now, but 
street venders and street-car conductors keep us constantly aware 
what it means to mouth words. 

We must not consider Hamlet as giving a general lesson in elo- 
cution, wholesome and widely applicable as we find his teaching to 
be. He is taking pains to secure that his dozen or sixteen lines be 
effectively spoken. But he would not be Hamlet did he not gen- 
eralize and moralize on every possible occasion. 

10. a periwig-pated fellow. It is known from other sources 
that the actors of Shakespeare's time wore wigs as a distinctive 
part of their costume. Wigs did not come into general use till the 
reign of Charles II. 



ACT III. SCENE II. 161 

16. whipped for o'erdoing Termagant ; it out-herods Herod. 
TermntjaiU is the name given, in tlie meiliieval roinance.s, to tlie 
god of the Saracens. The parts of Termagant and Herod, in tlie 
ancient moralities and mysteries, called for the most unrestrained 
ranting. The public of Shakespeare's time was still familiar with 
these characters and with the traditional way of acting them. 

30. the censure of the which one : the censure of one of 
whom. 

60. As e'er my conversation coped withal. See various 
meanings of cupe, Merchant iv 1 412 ; As You Like It ii 1 G7; Lear 
V 3 124. 

63. That no revenue hast. Accent revenue as in Tempest i 2 98. 

65. let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp. Compare, as 
to accent, the absztrd of this passage with that in i 2 103. As to 
pregnant, compare ii 2 212 ; ii 2 595 ; Meas. for Meas. iv 4 23. — Note 
the curious mixture of metaphors, — let the tongue lick — and 
crook the hinges of the knee. The poet forgets that he has said 
tongue, and thinks only of the sweet-tongued flatterer. 

78. my heart's core. Consider the etymology of core. 

81. the circumstance which I have told thee. Did we know 
already of this disclosure to Horatio ? Refer to Horatio's last 
appearance. Have we heard of him since that time ? 

83. when thou seest that act afoot. A frequent meaning of 
afoot. See Csesar iii 2 265. 

89. Vulcan's stithy. See Troi. and Cres. iv 5 255, where stithy 
is a verb. 

92. In censure of his seeming. Censure means here discus- 
sion, or consideration. 

98. of the chameleon's dish : I eat the air. See the interest- 
ing article on the chameleon in the Encyclopeedia Britannica. 

119. Shall I lie in your lap ? Steevens, quoted by Furness, 
says, — "To lie at the feet of a mistress, during any dramatic 
representation, seems to have been a common act of gallantry." 

132. your only jig-maker. Evidently we must understand the 
phrase to mean onlij your jig-maker. 

137. then let the devil wear black, for I '11 have a suit of sables. 
A difficult passage. The commentators try, by all sorts of devices. 



162 NOTES. 

to make out that the black, which Hamlet lets the devil wear, is 
true mourning, while a suit of sables is a festive garb. Then 
Hamlet means, — let the devil continue in black, for I will go out 
of mourning at once. 

142. else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby- 
horse, etc. See the hobby-horse described in Scott's Abbot, Chap, 
xiv and note 9 ; and illustrated in Knight's History of England, 
ii 255 ; iii 253. In Shakespeare's time the hobby-horse was going, 
or had gone, out of fashion. Hamlet quotes from a ballad which 
laments that the hobby-horse is forgotten. 

Stage direction, Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters. 
This dumb-show exhibits to us, in mute representation, precisely 
the same action that we are about to see again with the accom- 
paniment of language. That such procedure was not usual in the 
English theatre is shown by Ophelia's question, — What means 
this, my lord? It would seem to be Hamlet's purpose to -make 
absolutely sure, by the double presentation, that the scene he is 
about to have enacted shall be seen and felt by the king in its full 
significance. 

147. miching mallecho. The verb mich or meach, meaning to 
skulk, sneak, or lie hid, you will find as an English word in the 
International Dictionary. Mallecho is Spanish, meaning evil deed 
or crime. The two words, coupled by the alliteration, may have 
constituted a stock expression in the poet's time. 

162. the posy of a ring. Arber, in his English Garner, gives 
interesting collections of love-posies from Tudor times. 

159-276. The play within the play runs on, interrupted with 
comment by the audience, till the king rises. Shakespeare scholars 
have tried to settle what lines of this inner play are the dozen or 
sixteen that Hamlet was to set down and insert in 't. The inquiry 
is of course futile : no such lines exist. The poet had no occasion 
to write certain verses with a difference in order that critics in the 
future might please themselves with saying, — these lines are 
Hamlet's. It was for a dramatic purpose that he invented 
Hamlet's request to be allowed to insert in the play his dozen 
or sixteen lines. What this purpose was is perfectly obvious. 
The play is to be made to appear as one that the actors have 



ACT in. SCENE 11. 163 

already in their repertory and can present off-hand. But such 
a play cannot be conceived as suiting Hamlet's purpose until it 
has undergone alterations. Even an Elizabethan audience would 
have been skeptical about the previous existence of a play having 
just this plot. It is as absurd to look for Hamlet's lines as to 
search for the Mouse-trap in Italian literature. — See Furness' 
Variorum note, but especially that part of it which is Mr. Euruess' 
own. 

173. woe is me. Me, of course, is dative. 

175. I distrust you : I am anxious about you. 

177. holds quantity: are directly proportional. 

184. My operant powers their functions leave to do : my 
vital forces are decaying. 

202. Most necessary 't is : most inevitable, most sure. 

229. An anchor's cheer. The usual form, anchorite, does not 
occur in the plays, and this word anchor only in this instance. 

230. Each opposite that blanks the face of joy. Shakespeare's 
only use of the verb blank. 

247. Marry, how.' Be sure to give this question the due inflec- 
tion. 

251. Your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us 
not. Just such an anomaly of syntax as we had i 4 54. 

255. You are as good as a chorus, my lord. Remember how, 
in certain of Shakespeare's plays, as in Henry V. and Pericles, a 
chorus is employed to forward the movement of the plot by ac- 
quainting us with events that cannot be brought within the action. 

256. I could interpret ... if I could see the puppets dally- 
ing. Says Steevens, — "An interpreter formerly sat on the stage 
at all motions, or puppet-shows, and interpreted to the audience." 
See Two Gentlemen ii 1 loi. 

264. The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Evidently 
a reminiscence of a passage in The True Tragedie of Richard III., 
a play of uncertain authorship, the precursor of Shakespeare's 
Richard III. This early play you will find in Hazlitt's Shake- 
speare's Library, Part II, Vol. I, page 43. By all means look it up 
if you possibly can, and read at least the king's speech, p. 117. 

282-285. Probably a stanza of a ballad. 



164 NOTES. 

288. Provincial, as apijlied to roses, can no longer be under- 
stood. As to the meaning of razed, with shoes, commentators 
dispute whether it means slashed, striped, or, by misspelling, raised. 

289. a fellowship in a cry of players. From being used as a 
term of hunting, to mean a pack of hounds, as in Dream iv 1 128 ; 
Coriolanus iii 3 120 ; Othello ii 3 370, cry came to mean a company 
in general, as here. 

291. A whole one, I. I may here stand for ay, the interjec- 
tion, or it may be the pronoun, with ellipsis of construction. 

295. A very, very — pajock. The rime which Horatio says 
Hamlet might have made is obvious enough. 

305. Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. It may be 
Hamlet cuts short what he was going to say because Eosencrantz 
and Guildenstern now enter. 

348. by these pickers and stealers. The oath by this hand is 
common enough, as in Tempest iii 2 56, 78 ; Meas. for Meas. ii 1 172 ; 
Much Ado iv 1 327 ; Merchant v 1 161 ; and by these pickers and 
stealers means the same thing. 

358. ' While the grass grows.' The entire proverb has been pre- 
served, — while grass doth growe, the silly horse he starves. 

360. O, the recorders ! let me see one. The recorder was an 
instrument of the flute family, but blown, not like the modern 
flute, or fife, but like the flageolet. 

361. go about to recover the wind of me. Hamlet is now 
speaking privately with Guildenstern, whom he charges with hunt- 
ing him, and trying, with the craft of a hunter, to drive him into 
a net. 

363. In Guildenstern' s speech consider what word is to bear the 
main accent. 

388. though you can fret me. Note the double meaning of /ret 

401. They fool me to the top of my bent. On the word bent 
in this sense Dr. Murray says, — " Extent to which a bow may be 
bent or a spring wound up, degree of tension ; hence degree of 
endurance, capacity for taking in or receiving ; limit of capacity, 
etc. Now only in the Shakespearian phrase, To the top of one's 
bent, or the like." 

410. Soft! now to my mother. With the exclamation soft 



ACT III. SCENE III. 165 

Hamlet checks the bitter passion of liis soul, and passes to a con- 
sideration of the bearing he is to assume towards his mother. 

410. The participle shent is the only part of the verb shcnd that 
appears in the plays. See Troi. and Cres. ii 3 8G ; Coriolanus v 2 104. 

Scene 3. 

1. I like him not. Do not take the expression in the modern 
sense. 

2. prepare you. To2i is object, the verb being reflexive. 

15. The cease of majesty dies not alone. The poet, after 
writing the cease of majesty, continued his sentence as if he had 
begun with, — deceasing majesty, or a dying king. 

16. like a gulf, doth draw. The conception of a gulf as suck- 
ing or englutting is frequent in the plays. See Henry V. ii 4 10 ; 
iv 3 82. 

20-22. which . . . ruin. Note the anacoluthon. The Latin 
can say, — quae cum cadit. Why cannot the modern languages 
do the same thing ? 

24. Arm you, like prepare you in line 2. Both the noun and 
the verb arm are often used without reference to weapons of war- 
fare. Remember Antonio's / am armed to suffer, Merchant iv 1 ii. 

29. To hear the process ; to hear what goes on. 

she '11 tax him home : she will be peremptory and insistent in 
her demand for explanations. 

33. of vantage : from a secret and unsuspected post of obser- 
vation. 

48-51. Compare as to metric value the word prayer in line 48 
with the same word in line 51. 

61. the action lies in his true nature. See in the dictionary 
the meaning of lie as a law term. 

64. what rests : what remains. 

68. O limed soul. See 2 Henry VI. i 3 91 ; iii 3 16 ; and Comus 
646. 

73. Now might I do it pat. See Lear i 2 146. 

75. That would be scanned : that requires consideration. 

81. with all his crimes broad blown. This is the same par- 
ticiple blown that we had in iii 1 167, and which you will see in 



166 NOTES. 

Much Ado iv 1 59 ; L. L. Lost v 2 297. It is a different word that 
you find in the blown of Macbeth ii 3 60 ; Lear iv 1 8. 

88. know thou a more horrid hent. From the verb he7it the 
poet makes tlie noun hent for tliis one occasion. See Meas. for 
Meas. iv 6 14 ; Wint. Tale iv 3 133. 

Scene 4-. 

4. I '11 sconce me. Elsewhere, in the modern form, ensconce. 
See Wives iii 3 96. 

14. No, by the rood. Bood is purely English in its source and 
development, whereas cross is of Latin origin. 

18. In sit yoxi down the you is the nominative, usually not 
expressed with the imperative. In line 19, in I set you up., the 
you is dative. 

40. Such an act that blurs. So Caesar i 3 116 ; Wint. Tale, 
i 2 263. Note that in line 45 below we find the usual construction. 

46. the body of contraction : the formal observance of the 
marriage contract. 

49. this solidity and compound mass. Accent as if the words 
were preceded by even : heaven's face doth glow of course ; but 
even. . . . Show how the descriptive phrase in line 49 expresses 
the thought more forcibly than the single word would have done. 

50. as against the doom : as if looking forward to the speedy 
coming of the last judgement. 

51. what act 

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? 

Hamlet has thus far given only the headings or outlines of what he 
has to say. On index see Richard III. ii 2 149 ; iv 4 85 ; Troilus 
i 3 343 ; Othello ii 1 263. 

56. Hyperion's curls. See note on i 2 140. 

74. ecstasy, as generally in Shakespeare, meaning a certain 
degree of mental unsoundness. 

77. at hoodman-blind : at blindman's-buff. 

90. grained spots. Look up the etymology of grain as a color- 
word. It is an interesting history, as given by Marsh in his Lectures 
on the English language, reproduced by Furness. 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 167 

98. a vice of kings. The Vice in the old plays was a buffoon 
character who played low, villanous parts. A vice of kiiujs means 
a king who is a rascal. 

Enter Ghost. Look forward to line 135. Compare this appear- 
ance of the ghost with that in Act I. 

114. Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. The frailest 
natures are most under the sway of mental impressions. 

121. The word excrement in Shakespeare almost always means 
hair. 

126. preaching to stones, 

Would make them capable. 

See capable, similarly used, without complement, Eichard III. 
iii 1 155. 

128. you convert my stern effects : you break down my firm 
resolution. 

130. Will want true color. Compare All's Well ii 5 64 ; 
2 Henry VI. iii 1 23G. Express the sense of these words in 
modern phrase. 

149. Infects, a transitive verb with regimen understood. 

152-155. The last lines of Hamlet's speech, from Forgive me 
this to the end, would be more fittingly spoken as an aside, 
addressed to my virtue. It has been proposed, accordingly, to 
insert the direction aside after ranker, and to put a comma after 
this. Such a change makes the lines more intelligible. 

155. curb and woo. Apparently the only instance in the plays 
of curb used intransitively. 

161-165. There is no difficulty in surmising with confidence the 
drift of the passage, though it defies grammatical analysis. — While 
custom dulls our souls to the turpitude of base actions often per- 
formed, it also, on the other hand, establishes us in wholesome 
courses, and makes easy the practice of virtue. In one aspect 
custom is a monster and a devil : in another aspect custom is an 
angel. 

175. their scourge and minister. Heaven is evidently, on this 
occasion, conceived as a plural noun. 

180. The initial light syllable of the pentameter verse is rarely 



168 NOTES. 

dropped. A better way of scanning this line is doubtless to make 
two syllables of word. Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, 485, shows 
several instances where monosyllables whose vowel is followed by 
r have to be thus dealt with. 

190. On the strange words of the line consult the dictionary. 

193. Unpeg the basket, etc. The allusions would be pointless 
unless they referred to a well-known story. But the story is no 
longer known at all. 

200. I must to England : you know that ? How may we 
ima,gine that Hamlet knew of the king's resolution to send him to 
England. Compare iv 3 48. Note also how well informed he is 
of the plot against his life, and how confident he is that he can 
circumvent the plotters. Has the play prepared us to expect in 
Hamlet such subtlety ? 

202. There 's letters sealed. Abbott, Shak. Gram. 335, cites 
many instances of verbs in the singular preceding plural subjects. 

207. Hoist is a contraction of hoisted. Verbs ending in t or d 
are liable to this contraction. So we find bloat, iii 4 182 ; deject, 
iii 1 163 ; and in other plays the participles addict, graft, heat, in- 
fect, quit, taint, wed, waft, wet, etc. 

211. shall set me packing. A common meaning of j?ac7<;, in 
some parts of America, still is to cari'y a load; whence the com- 
pound, pack-animal. — Staunton, as quoted by Furness, adduces 
from the plays of Shakespeare many instances in which actors 
carry dead bodies from the stage, and accounts for the practice by 
referring to the poverty of the theatres, which could not afford 
assistants and supernumeraries for such purposes. 

ACT IV. 

Scene 1 . 

10. whips out . . . cries . . . kills. The subject is omitted 
in the animated discourse. 

11. in this brainish apprehension: in the delusion caused by 
the disease of his mind. 

13. Do we find the subjunctive thus used in modern English? 
26. a mineral of metals base. A mineral is a mine. Precious 
metals are always found associated with base ones. 



ACT IV. SCENE IV. 169 



Scene 2. 

11. That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Refer 
to ii 2 303. 

12. to be demanded of a sponge : to be questioned by a sponge. 
19. like an ape doth nuts. Tliis use of like as a conjunction, 

now so carefully avoided by good writers, is rare in Shakespeare. 
See Pericles ii 4 3G. 

29. The body is with the king, etc. If these words are to be 
understood as making up a riddle, the riddle is too tough for 
modern wit. 

32. Hide fox and all after. Perhaps the name of a children's 
game, — our hide-and-seek. All after, i.e. all in pursuit. 

Scene 3. 

21. a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. — 

With obvious allusion to Polonius as a statesman and politician. 

45. prepare thyself. Portia says to Shylock, jwepare thee to 
cut off the flesh ; Shylock says to Antonio, Come, prepare. Discuss 
the development of usage as regards the verb prepare. 

61. As my great power thereof may give thee sense : as thou 
hast learned by experience my power to enforce my demands. 

Scene 4. 

6. in his eye : in his presence, before his face. 
17. Make the pause count as a light syllable. 

24. Read with omission of initial light syllable. 

25. It will require armies of more than two thousand men, and 
an expenditure of more than twenty thousand ducats, to settle this 
question. 

53. Rightly to be great 

Is not to stir without great argument. 

Consider well whether to read with pause after Is or after not. 
The two ways of reading result in very different meanings. Only 
one of these ways of pausing gives to the But in line 55 its true 
value, and this consideration settles the place of the pause in 54. 
64. continent, a containing, or enclosing, space. 



170 NOTES. 

'Scene 5. 

3. will needs be pitied. Compare will needs be with thoit wilt 
needs marnj, iii 1 143. 

6. spurns enviously at straws. Note the meaniug of envy in 
Merchant iv 1 lO, 126 ; and of envious^ Hamlet iv 7 174. 

19. Guilt is so preoccupied with suspicion that it forgets to be on 
its guard against betraying itself. 

Re-enter Horatio, with Ophelia. The stage direction of the first 
quarto here is, — Enter Ophelia playing on a lute, and her hair 
down, singing. 

25. cockle hat and staff. Both were badges of pilgrims. See 
illustration in Knight's Shakespeare. 

26. his sandal shoon. Eecall the clouted shoon, Comus 635. 
37. larded. Compare v 2 20. 

41. God 'ild you. Usually in this contracted form, as in Mac- 
beth i 6 13, but in full form. Ant. and Cle. iv 2 33. In these for- 
mulas the verb yield means to requite. Chaucer uses the same 
form, — god yelde yow. Cant. Tales D 1772. 

They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Douce, quoted by 
Eurness, relates, as a common story among the vulgar in Gloucester- 
shire, the following : " Our Saviour went into a baker's shop, where 
they were baking, and asked for some bread to eat. The mistress 
immediately put a piece of dough into the oven to bake for him, 
but was reprimanded by her daughter, who, insisting that the piece 
of dough was too large, reduced it to a very small size. The dough, 
however, began to swell, and presently became of a most enormous 
size. Whereupon the baker's daughter cried out, ' Heugh, lieugh,' 
which owl-like noise induced our Saviour to transform her into 
that bird." 

69. I cannot choose but weep. We have lost the phrase can- 
not choose but, and now say, I cannot help (with gerund), or lean 
but, or cannot but (with infinitive). See Tempest i 2 18G ; ii 2 24. 

In the verses that Ophelia sings occurs the line, 
Which bewept to the grave did go. 
We are to remember that Ophelia sings snatches of old tunes that 
dwell vaguely in her memory. Her bewept, literally incorrect as 



ACT IV. SCENE V. 171 

it is, portrays her pitiful mental state, just as the words of Laertes, 
213-210, exhibit to us his fierce anger. 

81. the people muddied, Thick and unwholesome. See 
Shrew v 2 143 ; Wint. Tale i 2 325. 

84. in hugger-mugger. See dictionary. 

90. wants not : has an abundance of. 

93. Will nothing stick our person to arraign. See stick in 
the same sense, 2 Henry IV. i 2 2G ; Henry VIII. ii 2 127. 

97. Switzers had come to he a general term for mercenary 
soldiers. 

99. overpeering, as in Merchant i 1 12. 

105. The ratifiers and props of every word. Word must be 
used here in a very general sense, meaning, not merely ride, laiv, 
decree, but also course of action. 

110. this is counter. You are running in the direction contrary 
to the right one. 

146. Investigate, in encyclopsedia or text-book of zoology, the 
correctness of the allusion to the pelican. 

161. Nature is fine in love. The language is obscure. A sug- 
gestion of the meaning of fine you may get from Troi. and Cres. 
iii 2 24 ; iv 4 3 ; whence you may infer the sense of the word to 
be, — acutely susceptible of emotion, — wholly subject to the des- 
potism of the feelings. 

162. It sends some precious instances of itself: it parts even 
with its mental sanity. 

170, 171. Ophelia's verses seem to constitute an assignment of 
parts for the singing of the refrain of the ballad she has begun in 
lines 164-166. Thus in 170, 171 we must accent the pronouns. 

172, 173. The allusions to the wheel and to the false steioard that 
stole his master''s daughter can no longer be understood. 

175-180. The symbolical meanings which Ophelia assigns to the 
flowers she distributes belonged to the poetry of the time, and can 
in some instances be elsewhere exemplified. The rosemary and 
the pansies she gives to Laertes ; the fennel and the columbines to 
the king ; the rue, and perhaps the daisy, to the queen. Accord- 
ing to a contemporary poem, the fennel was emblematic of flattery. 
The columbine had an ill repute. Chapman speaks of it as " that 



172 NOTES. 

thankless flower." Bue, the name of the flower, is not akin to 
rue, meaning sorrow, or to ruth, meaning pity. But the poet con- 
nects, in his tliouglit, the flower-name, rue, and the common noun, 
ruth. What Ophelia means by giving some rue to the queen, to 
whom she says she must wear hers with a difference, and keeping 
some of it for herself, is thus explained by Skeat: "It is as if 
Ophelia said, ' I offer you rue, which has two meanings ; it is some- 
times called herb of grace, and in that sense I take some for myself ; 
but with a slight difference of spelling it means ruth, and in that 
respect it will do for you.'" " The explanation is not mine," says 
Professor Skeat, "it is Shakespeare's own." See Richardll. iii4i05- 
106. By Chaucer the daisy is glorified as empress of flowers, — as 
the flower of all flowers. What Shakespeare would make it sym- 
bolize in the hands of Ophelia is not clear. The violet stood for 
faithfulness in love. May it be that Ophelia named the daisy 
and the violets with Horatio in view ? 

178. A document in madness : a lesson in wisdom by a witless 
person. 

188. Thought. The word is used sometimes thus, to mean sad 
thought or melancholy. See Csesar ii 1 187 ; Antony iv 6 35. 

204. Rectify the syntax. 

216. What is the logical subject of cry ? 

Scene 6. 

26. too light for the bore of the matter. The figure is bor- 
rowed from the te'chnic of firearms. 

The adventure recounted in the letter to Horatio, considered in 
connection with Hamlet's confidence that he should succeed in 
thwarting the king's plot against his life, iii 4 202-210, suggests that 
the pirate had been duly arranged for by Hamlet himself. Note 
particularly the words of the letter concerning the pirates, "they 
knew what they did." As an accident, the adventure at sea comes 
too pat in fulfilment of prophecy. That the poet, however, con- 
ceived it as an accident becomes clear from Hamlet's story to 
Horatio v 2. Much as we might like to attribute so important an 
event to the foresight and action of the persons of the drama, 
nothing seems left for us but to ascribe it to chance. 



ACT IV. SCENE VIL 173 



Scene 7. 

13. be it either which. No other instance of this phrase form 
is found in the plays. Understand it, whicliever of tlie two it be. 

21. Would convert his gyves to graces : would regard him as 
being ennobled and glorified by the very tokens that marked him 
as a malefactor. The tangle of figures in 19-24 need occasion no 
difificulty. The passage is quite Sliakespearian, and perfectly clear. 

28. stood challenger on mount of all the age. Read as if the 
words challenger on mount were hyphened together so as to form 
a single idea. Ophelia's worth, standing on mount in the lists (see 
Ivanhoe) challenged all the age. 

59. As how should it be so? how otherwise? Spoken very 
deliberately, with long pauses. The speaker is studying the 
mystery. 

63. as checking at his voyage. For the source and meaning 
of the figure, see Twelfth Night ii 5 125 ; iii 1 71. 

77. of the unworthiest siege. On the meaning of siege, see 
Othello i 2 22. Unworthiest, having the least worth or value. 

82. Importing health and graveness : the one (the careless 
livery) importing health, and the other (the sables and weeds) 
importing graveness. 

85. they can well on horseback. Can was not always a mere 
auxiliary. Chaucer says, — I can a noble tale ; and Coverdale, — 
such as can but English. See Hamlet v 2 331 ; Lear iv 4 8. 

86. had witchcraft in it : i.e. in his equestrian skill. . 
90, 91. The contrasted words are forgery and did. 

104. Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy. That is, not 
with envy of him, but with the envy which his report excited in 
young men. 

109. The painting of a sorrow. Just as in ii 2 502. 

112. love is begun by time. Love does not spring up till after 
some term of association. 

113. in passages of proof. In cases where love has been 
brought to the test of time. 

117. at a like goodness still. See ii. 2 42. 

118. goodness, growing to a plurisy. Furness' note on 



174 NOTES. 

plurisy is lucid and conclusive : " The early dramatists were mis- 
led by the sound into supposing that pleurisy was the same as 
plethory, and they accordingly spelled it 'plurisy,' to indicate the 
symptoms implied in its supposed derivation from plusy 

119-122. Compare the king's moralizing with Hamlet's, iv 3 39-45, 
and with that of Polonius, ii 2 136-139. 

123. a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing. The sigh is 
called spendthrift because, according to old medical notions, it 
wastes the vital powers and does no good. With the disease 
properly named pleiirisy, the sigh that hurts by easing seems 
peculiarly congruous. 

128, 129. with these words compare Hamlet's scruples, iii 
3 75-95. 

139. a sword unbated : a sword not blunted by means of the 
button on the point always used to render harmless the foils of 
friendly scrimers. 

in a pass of practice : in a thrust which you will have specially 
practised. 

152. And that our drift : and if our drift. 

155. blast in proof: fail in the trial. 

156. your cunnings. Gunning is the verbal substantive of can. 
As we speak of a person's doings, meaning the things he does, so 
we may speak of his cunnings, meaning the things he can. 

160. and that he calls : and when he calls. 

173-175. her coronet weeds . . . her weedy trophies. There 
are two distinct words weed. Consider if the two words are 
mingled in this passage for the sake of word-play. Does the poet 
here, for a tricksy word, defy the matter ? 

179. incapable of her own distress: not comj)rehending — 
perhaps not conscious of — her own distress. 

190. The woman will be out : the womanish weakness in me 
will be over. 

ACT V. 

Scene 1 . 

4. straight : straightway, as in ii 2 451. 
crowner : coroner, in the clownish dialect. 



ACT V. SCENE I. 175 

9. Se offendendo, Clown's Latin for se defendendo, in self- 
defence. 

12. an act hath three branches, etc. Legal phraseology filtered 
through the clown's wit. 

1-3. argal, clownish for ergo. 

14. goodman. Accent the first syllable. 

24. quest, for inquest, — jury. See Sonnet xlvi. 

27. a gentlewoman. Recollect that the epithet gentle always 
signifies a distinction of social rank. 

32. even Christian. Even is prefixed to nouns, with the sense 
felloio, or Latin co-. Thus even knight translates Latin commilito : 
and so we have even servant, even disciple. 

33. There is no ancient gentlemen. See note on iii 4 202. 
42. could he dig without arms ? The usual verbal quibbling. 
57, 58. Be careful to read in the right tone. 

50. tell me that and unyoke : tell me that and you may unyoke 
the cattle of your wit and turn them out to pasture, as having done 
a good day's work. 

67. Go, get thee to Yaughan. All we can be sure of is that to 
Yanghan, — person or place, — -the clown sent his man for liquor. 

68. a stoup of liquor. See next scene, 278. 

He digs and sings. The verses sung by the clown are taken, 
with alteration, from a poem by Lord Vaux, entitled The aged 
lover renounceth love, which you may read in Arber'e edition of 
Tottel's Miscellany, or in Furness. By all means look up this 
poem. It is worth the trouble of a little search, both for its own 
sake and as accounting for some things in Shakespeare. 

71. The oh and the ah that interrupt the clown's song mark 
the effect upon his voice of his heavy strokes with the pick. 

75. a property of easiness : a matter of indifference. 

79-82. This stanza is made up out of two of the original, viz. — 

For age with steyling steppes 

Hath clawed me with his crowch, 

And lusty life away she leapes 
As there liad been none such. 



176 NOTES. 

For beauty with her bande 
These croked cares hath wrought, 

And shipped me into tlie lande 
From whence I first was brought. 

84. jowls : throws down carelessly. 

97. chapless. The noun drops its s before the suffix. 

mazzard, or mazard, — contemptuous for head. 

100. loggats a game in which small conical logs of wood were 
rolled at a mark. 

103. For and. The original has, — and eke, — with just the 
same meaning. 

106-121. Hamlet's speech over the skull of the lawyer is full of 
technical law terms, to study which in minute detail would be to 
begin the study of the law. The passage is one of many that prove 
the poet to have possessed an astonishing facility in the use of legal 
phraseology. 

110. sconce, like mazzard, 97, and pate, 116, is a vulgar word 
for head. 

115, 116. the fine of his fines, ... to have his fine pate full 
of fine dirt. Here is the word fine, forming two nouns of dis- 
similar meanings, and two adjectives also wholly unlike in sense. 
Yet the word is but one, and all its developments belong to the 
same history. The ^rst fine of the passage means end; and the 
second is the name of a legal process. The two adjectives have 
obvious meanings. — So in the expression, — the recovery of his 
recoveries, the first recovery is the common word, the second a 
technical term. 

120. this box must mean this grave, with reference to the boxes 
in which lawyers kept their papers. 

125. which seek out assurance in that : who strive by such 
means to make the ownership of property sure and lasting. 

131-133. thou liest . . . you lie. Note the varying form of 
address. What principle can you perceive in the matter ? 

149. we must speak by the card. The figure comes from the 
mariner's compass. Dr. Murray quotes (1636), — Let us carefully 
steere by the card of God's word. — Eecall Burns, — Unskilful he 
to note the card of prudent lore. 



ACT V. SCENE I. 177 

151. the age is grown so picked: so affected, so precise, so 
smartly critical. 

153. he galls his kibe. See Tempest ii 1 27(5 ; Lear i 5 9. 

176. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. 
At this point we inevitably put two data of time together, and 
infer that we know Hamlet's age. It is confusing, however, to 
compare with this the other indications of Hamlet's age which the 
play affords. Let us say that 'twere to consider too curiously to 
assign to him any certain and conclusive age at all. It was not 
the poet's purpose to be consistent after the manner of a biography 
or a chronicle. Hamlet sometimes appears young, — but freshly 
out of his teens. Sometimes he acts and speaks with more matu- 
rity than such an age implies. In no scene does a reasonable con- 
sistency require us to give him so many years as thirty. In our 
thought we always make Hamlet young enough and old enough 
for the need of the moment. His age is not a fixed datum, with 
which his words and deeds must consist. — We must dispose of the 
grave-digger as a witness by simply remarking that in the circum- 
stances his reference to the birth of young Hamlet creates for an 
audience a moment of intensest interest. It was to this end that 
the poet let the grave-digger talk. 

189-215. The Yorick passage also, chronologically consistent as 
it is with the grave-digger's account of his term of service, must be 
understood as having been inserted for quite other purposes than 
chronological ones. An audience in the theatre, surrendering to 
the pathos of the Yorick scene, does not stop to calculate. 

255. crants : a garland. 

256. her maiden strewments. See Cymbeline iv 2 285, and 
line 269, this scene. 

the bringing home of bell and burial. See illustration of these 
words, Rom. and Jul. iv 5 84-90. 

284. splenitive. Compare Csesar iv 3 47 ; 1 Hen. IV. v 2 19 ; 
Hen. VIII. iii 2 99. 

298. woo't does not stand for ivotildst thou, but is an unmistak- 
able present, equivalent to icilt thou. 

299. eisel is a good English word for vinegar. Shakespeare 
scholars have been usually quite unwilling to let it remain vinegar. 



178 NOTES. 

and have proposed all sorts of other meanings and readings. In 
Matthew xxvii 48, Wycliffe's version has: — oon of hem fillide a 
spounge with aycel. 

314, 315. Let Hercules himself, etc. Into whatever new dan- 
gers he finds that he has run, he will not fail to assert his cause. 

320. This grave shall have a living monument. This is prob- 
ably spoken to Laertes alone, and hints the impending sacrifice of 
Hamlet's life. 

Scene 2. 

6. worse than the mutines in the bilboes : worse than muti- 
neers fettered with the peculiarly painful irons named bilboes. 

22. such bugs and goblins in my life : such awful conse- 
quences to follow if I remained alive. See Shrew i 2 211 ; 
3 Henry VI. v 2 2 ; Wint. Tale iii 2 93. 

23. on the supervise : at sight. 

33. our statists. See Wordsworth's A Poet's Epitaph. 

36. it did me yeoman's service. Illustrate the meaning of 
yeoman from 1 Henry IV". iv 2 16 ; Henry V. iii 1 25. 

42. And stand a comma 'tween their amities. We now use 
the comma to separate, according to the sense of its origin ; but to 
Shakespeare the comma was evidently a symbol of connection. 

61. The figure is taken from men confronting each other in 
deadly encounter with swords. 

63. Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon : is it not 
now incumbent upon me. — In thinks'' t thee we have all the elements 
of the impersonal verb-phrase. In the common methinks, the for- 
mal subject is lacking. 

79. the bravery of his grief : the loud and extravagant vaunting 
of his grief, in Scene 1. 

89. 'tis a chough. We naturally think of chough here in the 
same sense as in Tempest ii 1 266, and find the pertinency of its 
application to Osric to consist in the ability of the bird to chatter. 
It may be, however, we are to spell the word chuff, and understand 
it as having the same meaning as in 1 Henry IV. ii 2 94. 

102. complexion : temperament, disposition. See Hamlet i 4 27; 
Merchant iii 1 32, 



yiCT V. SCENE 11. 179 

112. most excellent differences. I'erliaps this is the Osric- 
Euphuistic Wiiy of sayiiit;', — all the different sorts of excellence. 

Of very soft society and great showing : of perfect breeding 
and most elegant manners. 

113. to speak feelingly of him : to put my heart into the task 
of setting him forth. 

114. you shall find in him the continent of what part a 
gentleman would see. You shall find him to be a perfect collec- 
tion of models of gentlemanly accomplishments. 

120. yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail. Laertes 
plies his sails so deftly, and holds his course over the sea of deport- 
ment with such absolute exactness, that any small craft of descrip- 
tion that attempts to follow him can but yaw. 

131. Is 't not possible to understand in another tongue ? 
Horatio taunts Osric with not understanding his own sort of 
language when another man speaks it. 

148. in the imputation laid on him by them. The them must 
refer to the people at the court, whom Osric has heard talking 
about Laertes. 

149. in his meed. In his meed of praise. He gets more praise 
than anybody else. 

155. he has imponed : he has "put up." 

162. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had 
done : I knew you would have to consult the notes. 

170. the French bet against the Danish. In view of Osric's 
further exposition of the business in his next speech, we have to 
conclude that the king's Barbary horses are to go to Laertes if he 
makes twelve hits before Hamlet makes nine ; but that Hamlet, to 
get the French swords, has only to make nine hits before Laertes 
makes twelve. 

190. Yours, yours. Hamlet's curt recognition of Osric's I 
commend, etc. 

193. This lapwing runs away : a forward, conceited fellow. 

195. He did comply with : he made compliments to. 

198. got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter. 
Have learned fine speech enough to be able to talk superficially in 
the fashionable style. 



180 NOTES. 

200. yesty: frothy. 

203. commended him : commended himself. 

214. In happy time. The phrase expresses courteous recogni- 
tion of the message just hrouglit liim by the lord, and willing 
acquiescence in the arrangements on foot. 

226. gain-giving : misgiving. The word gain-giving is found 
in Middle-English texts, apparently always in the simple meaning, 
a giving back. 

235. since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to 
leave betimes? Unless we understand an object with the second 
verb — to leave — this is the one instance in Shakespeare of the verb 
leave used intransitively. Comment on present usage. 

266. I '11 be your foil, Laertes. Hamlet plays on the other 
meaning of foil. See Richard III. v. 3 250 ; Tempest iii 1 46. 

267. your skill shall . . . stick fiery off indeed: shall stand 
out by its peculiar brilliancy. 

368. the occurrents . . . which have solicited : the events 
which have prompted me to give him my dying voice. 

375. This quarry cries on havoc : this scene of death announces 
an indiscriminate slaughter. 

376. in thine eternal cell. Eternal is used here "to express 
extreme abhorrence." Compare Caesar i 2 160 ; Othello iv 2 130. 



Hamlet is the most famous and the most interesting of plays 
because it is the most perfect transcript of human experience. 
The central idea of the tragedy, — that which makes the play 
tragic throughout its entire structure, irrespective of the final 
catastrophe, — is a defect or paralysis of will, existing in a nature 
otherwise superbly gifted and adapted to win our admiration and 
love. This keynote of the play we are by no means left to infer 
solely from the development of the story. We find it formulated 
for us in every possible shape and in the speeches of the most dis- 
similar personages. Moreover, Hamlet knows and bewails his 
weakness. He avows it again and again, names it distinctly, 
resolves to overcome it, — always in vain. 



IfOTES. 181 

But though in Hamlet the poet takes such pains to have us kept 
constantly aware of the tragic motive of the drama, so that the 
moral of the play is obvious and the purpose of the action intelli- 
gible, it remains to be said that no other masterpiece of literature 
presents so many problems that cannot be solved. The man 
Hamlet is discussed by modern critics quite as if he vpere a his- 
torical character, about whom investigation might bring to light 
some new data. The mysteries of the play are caused by the 
insistence of readers upon finding in it the exactness of a chronicle. 
Just as the professor of rhetoric requires his pupils to draw up a 
formal plan before beginning the essay, so we are apt to think 
Shakespeare saw his characters distinct in every detail, as if he 
had known them in life and recognized some sort of duty of 
historical accuracy in drawing his portraits. 

We must remember that a play is meant to be presented to the 
public on the stage, to address the eye as well as the ear. The 
poet avails himself of the possibilities of scenic illusion. Shake- 
speare's audiences loved to see plays, and probably read them but 
little. Books were few, and persons able to read were also few. 
The modern custom of careful editing for readers, and of minute 
criticism of details, was utterly unknown. The fate of a play was 
its fate in the theatre. 

The modern editor is superior to scenic illusion, and so sees the 
play in a light never contemplated by the poet. Because the play 
is great and admirable, he is apt to think it must be consistent in 
minutest detail, could we only view it aright. Hence editors take 
sides on Hamlet questions, array passage against passage, and show 
a partisan zeal, such as we usually think of only in connection with 
politics or religion. 

But the Hamlet questions cannot be settled ; and the reason of 
this impossibility is the fact that they were either never raised, or, 
at any rate, were never settled, by the poet himself, whose creation 
Hamlet is. 

Chief among the unsettled problems of Hamlet criticism is the 
question whether Hamlet is insane. It is a veritable question, and 
has two sides. Does not Hamlet sometimes, as towards Ophelia, 
carry to unnecessary and cruel lengths his counterfeiting of mental 



182 N-OTES. 

disease ? The topic is an interesting one to discuss. A resume of 
tlie literature of the subject may be found in Furness. A second 
reading of the play may be profitably undertaken, with the view 
of collecting data bearing on the question of Hamlet's responsi- 
bility for his acts. But it must be remembered that the question, — 
is Hamlet insane — resolves itself finally into the form, — did Shake- 
speare mean to represent Hamlet as being insane ? The man 
Hamlet is simply the figure that acts and speaks in this play. 
Critics often speak of him, of his sayings and doings, in the past 
tense, as if he at some time had a natural life on earth, and were 
now dead. 

Another question concerns Hamlet's age. At the beginning of 
the play he intends to go back to school in Wittenberg. At the 
end of the play he is thirty years old. Collect all the data afforded 
by the play that suggest inferences as to his age at the time being. 
Consider whether we are justified in assuming that Shakespeare 
had in mind in his hero a man of definite age. See note on v 1 17G 
as to the way in which the thirty years and the YoricJc passages 
are to be accounted for. 

Closely connected with the problem of Hamlet's age is that of 
the time occupied by the play. Is it thinkable that the play is to 
be conceived as having duration enough to allow the hero to grow 
up from school age to thirty years ? Do we find the lapse of time 
clearly marked ? Passages that imply rapid movement of events, 
and passages that call for indefinite allowance of time, may be 
brought together with the object of attaining some satisfactory 
conclusion. This has been done with infinite pains, but with 
shadowy results. Did the events of the drama take place in time, 
any more than they took place at Elsinore ? The actual Elsinore 
has no such scenery as does the Elsinore of the play. The poet is 
quite as wanton with his times as with his places. 

Again, the idea has been broached, by critics of some note, that 
Hamlet is mistakenly conceived as a man of defective will, and 
that he is much rather a hero, of intense energy and of great 
executive force, who simply cannot carry out the ghost's injunc- 
tion to kill the king, as he can devise no way of proving to the 
Danish public the justice of his cause. This view of Hamlet's 



NOTES. 183 

inaction ascribes it to objective causes, — he is ever ready to act, 
but finds no opportunity. The common view ascribes his inaction 
to subjective causes, — he has opportunities, but is never ready. 
The fact is, Hamlet still has friends who resent, almost as a 
p'ersonal affront, the imputation to their hero of any defect of 
character. 



ENGLISH. 



Composition-Rhetoric for Use in Secondary 
Schools. 



By Professors F. N. ScOTT, of the University of Michigan, and J. V. 
Denney, of Ohio State University. i2mo, cloth, 370 pages. Price, 
;^i.oo. 

IN the preparation of this work the authors have been guided 
by three considerations. 

First, it is desirable that a closer union than has hitlierto 
prevailed be brought about between secondary composition and 
secondary rhetoric. The rhetoric which is found in this book is 
meant to be the theory of the pupil's practice. 

Second, it is desirable in secondary composition that greater 
use be made of the paragraph than has hitherto been done. In 
this book the paragraph is made the basis of a systematic method 
of instruction. 

A third idea which underlies the work is the idea of growth. 
A composition is regarded not as a dead form, to be analyzed 
into its component parts, but as a living product of an active, 
creative mind. 

In working out these ideas, care has been taken to provide 
illustrative material of a kind that should be thought-provoking, 
interesting, and valuable in itself, but not too far above the 
standard of literary practice. 

Professor Sophie C. Hart, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. : As a whole 
I consider it the best book on English Composition for the preparatory 
school, and shall recommend it to all teachers who send students to 
Wellesley. 

Superintendent Mark S. W. Jefferson, Lexington, Mass. : The only rational 
book on the subject that I know. Apart from the practical manner of 
approaching the subject, I am delighted with the material chosen for the 
illustration of principles ; pupils will find enjoyment in every paragraph. 

Miss Harriet L. Mason, Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. : I find it all 
that I could wish. The book fills a unique place in English text-books, 
and is in the very van of the best teaching of composition. I shall use it 
during the coming year. 

Professor Robert Herrick, University of Chicago, Chicago, III. : It is really 
a long stride in the right direction. It throws overboard much use- 
less rubbish contained in the secondary school rhetoric, and teaches 
explicitly how to get material, how to arrange it, and how to present it. 



ENGLISH. 



Studies in English Composition. 

By Hakkikt C. Keei.kr, High School, Cleveland, Ohio, and Emma 
C. Davis, Cleveland, Ohio. lamo, cloth, 210 pages. Price, 80 cents. 

THIS book is the outgrowth of experience in teaching compo- 
sition, and the lessons which it contains have all borne the 
actual test of the class-room. Intended to meet the wants of 
those schools which have composition as a weekly exercise in 
their course of study, it contains an orderly succession of topics 
adapted to the age and development of high school pupils, to- 
gether with such lessons in language and rhetoric as are of con- 
stant application in class exercises. 

The authors believe that too much attention cannot be given 
to supplying young writers with good models, which not only 
indicate what is expected, and serve as an ideal toward which 
to work, but stimulate and encourage the learner in his first 
efforts. For this reason numerous examples of good writing 
have been given, and many more have been suggested. 

The primal idea of the book is that the pupil learns to write 
by writing ; and therefore that it is of more importance to get 
him to write than to prevent his making mistakes in writing. 
Consequently, the pupil is set to writing at the very outset ; the 
idea of producing something is kept constantly uppermost, and 
the function of criticism is reserved until after something has 
been done which may be criticised. 

J. W. Steams, Professor of Pedagogy, University of Wisconsin : It strikes 
me that the author of your " Studies in English Composition " touches 
the gravest defect in school composition work when she writes in her pref- 
ace : " One may as well expect a sea-anemone to show its beauty when 
grasped in the hand, as look for originality in a child, hampered by the 
conviction that every sentence ha writes will be dislocated in order to be 
improved." In order to improve the beauty of the body we drive out the 
soul in our extreme formal criticisms of school compositions. She has 
made a book which teaches children to write by getting them to write 
often and freely, and if used with the spirit which has presided over the 
making of it, it will prove a most effective instrument for the reform of 
school composition work. 

Albert G. Owen, Superintendent, Afton, Iowa : It is an excellent text. I 
am highly pleased with it. The best of the kind I have yet seen. 



8 ENGLISH. 

From Milton to Tennyson. 

Masterpieces of English Poetry. Edited by L. Du PONT Syle, Uni- 
versity of California. i2mo, cloth, 480 pages. Price, ^i.oo. 

IN this work the editor has endeavored to bring together within 
the compass of a moderate-sized volume as much narrative, 
descriptive, and lyric verse as a student may reasonably be re- 
quired to read critically for entrance to college. From the 
nineteen poets represented, only such masterpieces have been 
selected as are within the range of the understanding and the 
sympathy of the high school student. Each masterpiece is 
given complete, except for pedagogical reasons in the cases of 
Thomson, Cowper, Byron, and Browning. Exigencies of space 
have compelled the editor reluctantly to omit Scott from this 
volume. The copyright laws, of course, exclude American poets 
from the scope of this work. 

The following poets are represented : — 

MILTON, by the L'AIlegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas, and a Selection from the Sonnets. 

DRYDEN . . Epistle to Congreve, Alexander's Feast, Character of a Good Parson. 

POPE .... Epistles to Mr. Jervas, to Lord Burlington, and to Augustus. 

THOMSON . . Winter. 

JOHNSON . . Vanity of Human Wishes. 

GRAY .... Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, and The Bard. 

GOLDSMITH . Deserted Village. 

COWPER . . Winter Morning's Walk. 

BURNS . . . Cotter's Saturday Night, Tarn O'Shanter, and a Selection from the 

Songs. 
COLERIDGE . Ancient Mariner. 
BYRON . . . Isles of Greece, and Selections from Childe Harold, Manfred, aid 

the Hebrew Melodies. 
KEATS . . . Eve of St. Agnes, Odfe to a Nightingale, Sonnet on Chapman's 

Homer. 
SHELLEY . . Euganean Hills, The Cloud, The Skylark, and the Two Sonnets 

on the Nile. 
WORDSWORTH Laodamia, The Highland Girl, Tintern Abbey, The Cuckoo, The 

Ode to a Skylark, The JMilton Sonnet, The Ode to Duty, and 

the Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. 
MACAULAY . Horatius. 
CLOUGH . . . Two Ships, the Prologue to the Mari Magno, and the Lawyer's 

First Tale. 
ARNOLD . . The Scholar-Gypsy and the Forsaken Merman. 
BROWNING . Transcript from Euripides (Balaustion's Adventure). 
TENNYSON . GEnone, Morte D'Arthur, The Miller's Daughter, and a Selection 

from the Songs. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




BnGlisb Classics. 



Addison. 

MArrHEw Arnold. 
Burke. 
Carlyle. 

Macaulay. 



Milton. 
Shakespeare. 



L. D. Syle (Editor). 



Webster. 



Uniform with this Volume. 

De Coverley Papers. 

Essays in Criticism. 

On Conciliation with the Colonies. 

Essay on Burns. 

Essay on Johnsoti. 

Essay on Addison. 

Essay on Chatham. 

Essay on Clive. 

Essay on Milton. 

Essay on Johnson. 

Essay on Warren Hastings. 

Paradise Lost, Books I., II. 

Julius Caesar. 

Macbeth. 

Merrhant of Venice. 

As You Like It. 

Hamlet. 

Four English Poems. The Rape of 
the Lock, John Gilpin's Ride, The 
Prisoner of Chillon, and Rugby 
Chapel. 

Reply to Hayne. 

Other Toluines in preparation. 



^S. TlTIlRBER. 

S. S. Sheridan. 
C. B. Bradley. 

H. W. BOYNTON. 

S. Thurber. 



H. W. Boynton. 
S. Thurber. 



C. B. Bradley. 



MLYN AND BACON, Publishers, 

xnt St., BOSTON. ^ 378, Wabash Ave., CHICAGO. 



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